


ROSE 
GARDENING 



MARY 
HAMPDEN 



THE JiOME GARDEN BOOKS 




Class __Si:l 

Book Jdi 



ROSE . 
GARDENING 



THE HOME GARDEN' BOOKS 



TOWN 
GARDENING 

By 
Mary Hampden 

Illustrated from 
Photographs & Drawings 



Practical instruction for 
the Town Gardener 

Cr. 8vo. 6/- net. 




THE LYON ROSE 



ROSE 
GARDENING 

How to Manage Roses 
and Enjoy Them 



BY 

MARY HAMPDEN 

Author of 'Town Gardening,' 'Bulb Gardening,' etc. 




NEW YORK: 

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 

1922 



-.'p'f^ 



3>0 D L I, O 



Printed in Great Britain by Butler & Tanner, Frame and London. 



DEDICATED 

WITH TRUE REGARD 

TO 

A FORMER NEIGHBOUR 

C. T. 
WHO LOVED HIS ROSES 



PREFACE 

A FOOL came running to his King, and cried, ' Sire, sire, 
rejoice ! A glorious thing has happened in your king- 
dom.' 

But the more the Monarch and the Courtiers, the Ministers 
of State, the Doctors of Divinity, the Journahsts, the PubHc 
Crier, questioned him as to the nature of this wonderful event, 
the less he could remember what it was. 

That night, when the King was playing the flute to his 
Queen, and had persuaded her to listen to the beginning of his 
latest symphony for the third time (because he always forgot 
some sharps and flats in the second bar, so had to recom- 
mence), the Royal apartment was burst into by the Fool, 
who carried a red rose. 

' Sire, sire, Fve found the miracle ! ' he shouted. ' It only 
happened at midday. What a wonderful kingdom this must 
be for such a Rose to open in it ! ' 

' Out of my presence, you tiresome fool ! You aren't even 
amusing,' quoth the enraged Ruler. And a page-boy seized 
the Rose and tore it into fragments. 

But a Poet, having seen that flower before even the Fool 
discovered its rarity, had written a little sonnet about it, in 
which he had preached a little sermon, all on Love. And that 
poem touched the heart of a woman so much that she wedded 
her poorest suitor, who was king of himself, which is far finer 
than being king of any number of fools and acres. And the 
young husband taught his wife some of the myriad beautiful 
truths that the Rose is always whispering to those who have 

9 



10 PREFACE 

ears neither dulled nor closed on purpose. And the young 
wife thought of these lovely facts so much that her babies were 
partly made of them, and had sublime faces, with souls looking 
through. And one baby became a statesman, who saved his 
country from revolution ; another was a physician, who 
studied till he learnt just how to subdue pain ; a third was a 
priest, who drove wickedness out of all who heard his dis- 
courses. That is the end of the ands. 

But the King's reign was very peaceful, thanks to the 
Statesman ; his people were blest in being spared suffering, 
through the Physician ; while the words of the Priest flowed 
like a river through the years, gathering to themselves all the 
beautiful Love that is only waiting to be invited. Nobody 
knew that the Rose had done all that. 

Unless the Fool found out, when he died smiling. 

MARY HAMPDEN. 



CONTENTS 



CHAP. 

I Why we should Grow Roses 

II Ramblers . 

Ill WiCHURAIANAS . 

IV Climbing Roses . 

V Great Full Roses 

VI Long-blooming Roses 

VII Roses for Garden Decoration 

VIII Roses for Gathering 

IX Beds of Roses . 

X Standard Roses 

XI Pillar Roses 

XII Pernetiana Roses 

XIII Dwarf Polyantha Roses 

XIV Briar Roses 
XV China Roses 

XVI The Whims of Roses 

XVII Roses of Rare Colour 

XVIII Fragrant Roses 

XIX Soil for Roses . 

XX Planting Roses. 

XXI Rose Pruning . 

XXII Disbudding and Feeding Roses 

XXIII Grafting Roses. 

XXIV Budding Roses . 

11 



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no 

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12 



CONTENTS 



CHAP. 

XXV Sowing Roses . 

XXVI Raising Roses from Cuttings 

XXVII Layering Roses 

XXVIII Supporting Roses 

XXIX Watering Roses 

XXX Protecting Roses 

XXXI Curing the Ills of Roses 

XXXII Roses in Pots . 

XXXIII The MARfecHAL Niel Rose 

XXXIV Breeding Roses 
XXXV Roses in Rockeries . 

XXXVI Moats, Ditches, and Banks of Roses 

XXXVII Rose Pergolas and Arches 

"XXXVIII Rose Hedges and Rose Espaliers 

XXXIX Making Rose Gardens 

XL Some Rose Pedigrees 

XLI Town and Seaside Roses , 

XLII Rose Arranging Indoors . 



page 

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184 
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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



In colour 



^The Lyon Rose . 
~ Frau Karl Druschki . 
^ Ulrich Brunner 
"■ Madame Edouard Herriott 
■Joseph Lowe 
'Richmond . 
' Lady Hillingdon 
' Ophelia 

Madame Second Weber 

Golden Emblem . 

Lady Alice Sinclair . 

General McArthur 
■ Duchess of Wellington 
"" Hugh Dickson 

Caroline Testout 

Grubs an Teplitz 



(The 



Daily 



Mail Rose) 



Frontispiece 

Facing page 32 

„ 32 

. „ 48 

„ 64 

. „ 64 

„ 64 

,. 96 

.. 96 

„ 128 

,. 128 

,. 128 

,, ,, 160 

,, ,. 160 

,. M 192 

.. .. 192 



Line Drawings in the Text 



Plan for a Rose Garden ..... 

Rustic Wood Pillar for Rambler Roses . 

Iron Support for Climbing Rose .... 

Poles for Climbing Roses, to Screen the Corner of a Border 

A Garden for Colour, Scent and Sound . 

A Garden of Rose Hedges and Pillars . 

A Leaf of Hybrid Perpetual Rose. 

A Leaf of a Rambler Rose ..... 

A Leaf of a Tea Rose ...... 

A Handsome Border of Long-blooming Roses 

Lawn Beds of Long-blooming Roses 

Rustic Cross for Climbing Rose .... 

Fan-shaped Support for Roses .... 

The Night-cap Rose Protector .... 

13 



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14 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



Line Drawings [continued) — 

A Hanging Cap Rose Shade ..... 

Wisp of Straw Rose Shade, tied between Stakes . 

Impromptu Shade made with a Box and two Sticks 

A Shade and Bud-hastener made with a Sheet of Whitened 

Glass ....... 

A Shade made of an Old Tin and a Bamboo Rod 

Bamboo Poles and Wires, for Climbers, to shade Roses . 

A Grass Walk Rosery . 

A Bed of Roses to form a Pyramid 

A Properly Staked Standard Rose . 

Rose Pillars in a House-wall Angle 

A Round Rosery, with Grass 

A Paved Rosery .... 

Bed of Dwarf Polyantha Roses 

An Uncommon Border for Dwarf Polyantha Roses 

Rose with Branches Trained Out ... 

Rose Trees laid in Trench to await a good Planting Time 

An Old Tree before being Thinned Out 

An Old Tree well Thinned Out 

An Old Tree Cut Down 

A Malformed Bud. 

A Green-centred Bud . 

A One-sided Bud .... 

One Bud too many 

A Good Rose Bud weakened by one that should have been 

Removed .... 
Two Buds too many 
Pointed Scion ready to Insert 

Branch of Stock, with slit cut ready for the Scion 
Branch ready cut to receive Bud . 
Bud, ready to Insert 

Sheltering Screen of Wood and Gorse Boughs 
Pot Rose stood out on a Slate and Two Bricks 
Pot Rose stood upon Wooden Laths on Cinder-strewn Border 
A Portion of a Rose Rock Garden 
Pillars sunk two feet deep, wedged by Stones 
A Rustic Wood Fencing for Roses 
A Paved Formal Rose Garden 
A Novel Red and Pink Rosery in Grass 



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ROSE GARDENING 

CHAPTER I 

WHY WE SHOULD GROW ROSES 

' Oh, Rose, of thee I dream, 
Of all the flowers supreme.' 

IT is possible to love the Rose more than the Rose Garden, 
or the Rose Garden more than the Rose, but the true 
enthusiast so schools his affections that he learns to be fair 
to both. To plant so as to merely show off a favourite variety 
is to miss the rapture of making a perfect dream of a Rose 
Garden. 

Perfect, do I say ? Alas, no ! There are bound to be the 
three f 's — flecks, flaws and failures. Yet let us thank God that 
it is so, since zeal can only exist in comfort while there are 
higher steps to climb, more of the race to run, mistakes to be 
buried, missed perfection to be pursued. Believe me, rose- 
growing is the happiest hobby in the world. With music in 
the drawing-room, books galore in the library or by the bed- 
side, a moderate, but certain, income, health, a rose garden 
beginning just outside the windows then stretching far into 
the mysterious beyond — given friends, dear people of some 
kind, with whom to share blossoms, scenes, rooms, authors 
and harmony — a man or woman ought to be royally conscious 
of living in luxury. And at present more people live luxuri- 
ously than are aware of it. 

The beyond need not be very extensive, the books may be 
in paper covers, the music drawn only from a sweet, old, rather 
tired piano, and the roses have to be counted by dozens, instead 
of hundreds or thousands. It is the love of good things that 

15 



i6 ROSE GARDENING 

makes possession of them precious ; and sometimes the folk 
who have fewest love those most. 

It is a hobby that will develop the muscles, or can be indulged 
in gently and partly by proxy ; it will empty full pockets, 
yet an obscure, scarcely well-to-do person of either sex has 
all the facilities for revelhng in it. The labouring man, with 
hours filched from morning sleep, and spring and summer 
evenings only, is not debarred from conferring some almost 
immortal new Rose upon the universe ; which represents, 
of course, the highest in rose culture. 

What colours the garden can wear ! What a scented plea- 
saunce it can prove ! How gathered roses will overflow the 
rooms, and go forth to paint exquisite patches, and spread 
haunting perfumes in divers places ! Then, though the Rose 
has been so long in cultivation that we cannot trace the identity 
of the first man who grew it for pleasure, what extraordinary 
new effects we can create with it, and what a scanty amount 
we know about it, in spite of all the centuries of study by our 
scientists. 

Perhaps the Rose smiles to herself, out there in the moon- 
light, over the knowledge of her own mysteriousness ; for 
we all like to be puzzles to our world. 

An old priest, who was a poet in mind, once said to me : 
' As often as I remember that the poor are always with us, 
I reflect, unwittingly, that the same can be said of the Catholic 
faith, and surely of the rose ? God never wastes His great 
works.' 

An unadvertised social reformer — one of those beings with 
nice mad ideas — told me he was convinced there would be 
no wars, strikes, murders, injustices, desertions, robberies, 
frauds or hypocrisies, if we all worked in rose gardens.'and had 
our children trained to grow roses before learning to read and 
write. May there not be something in the notion ? 

The rose is the best flower to love rabidly — as we soon 
shall if we take up the culture — because roses can be had 
in bloom every month, week, day, probably hour, if not minute, 
of the year. Special facilities are required for this, yet far 



WHY WE SHOULD GROW ROSES 



17 



less expenditure than is demanded by several other flower 
hobbies such as orchid, carnation or auricula growing. 




Plan for a Rose Garden. 



i8 ROSE GARDENING 

We may begin with garden roses, giving them all aspects, 
representing all classes, from the Banksians that commence 
the show to the very latest bloomers. Here is a list of those 
I have watched competing among themselves each year for 
the honour of being latest out. 

Caroline Testout. Pink. Gruss an Teplitz. Crimson- 

Mevrow Dora van Tets. Scarlet. scarlet. 

Climbing Mrs. W. J. Grant. Mrs. W. C. Miller. Vermilion, 

Deep rose. rose and pink. 

Killarney. Pink. Betty. Gold and rose. 

La France. Pink. Mrs. Wemyss Quin. Yellow. 

Viscountess Folkestone. Florence Haswell Veitch. 

Creamy pink. Crimson. 

La Tosca. Silver pink. Frau Karl Druschki. White. 

Then one can grow pot roses to force, pot roses to bring 
on slowly, pot roses not hastened at all, pot roses in sun, in 
shade, in stoves, greenhouses, conservatories, porches and 
various frames. If there are hundreds of pot roses, and they 
are cut back in small batches at all sorts of odd seasons, given 
the necessary artificial temperatures, they will blossom at 
just as odd times. Pot roses out of doors can be prevented 
from blooming all at once by being differently located, as well 
as differently pruned : some should be stood in a shaded stone 
courtyard, for example, while some of their brethren are start- 
ing growth in spring sunshine. Roses, too, can be pruned 
a number of times, instead of once or twice in the usual pruning 
months ; the hardier sorts bear this series of checks less well 
than the Teas, however ; as for Hybrid Teas, their autumnal 
and early winter vigour after the rough treatment proves a 
glorious reward to their manager, and, let us hope, reconciles 
them to the being delayed. Try keeping on cutting back a 
Madame Abel Chatenay pot specimen, and limiting its shoots, 
all the summer ; give it its head in October, grow it on under 
glass, with sunshine, food, water and genial warmth, and 
see how it will bloom. A famous rose grower, the Reverend 
J. H. Pemberton, remarked, in an address to the National 



WHY WE SHOULD GROW ROSES 19 

Rose Society : ' It is possible to have roses in the garden from 
April to Christmas ' ; his daughter having been able, for several 
years, to place six vases of roses on the altar of his church 
on Christmas Day. 

I repeat that pot roses, out of doors, can be prevented 
from blooming all together by being differently situated, as 
well as differently cut back. Some should be stood on stones 
or bricks, in a cold shaded court, while their brethren are 
starting growth in spring, or beginning to blossom in early 
summer. 

Again, roses can be pruned two, three, or four times to 
retard them, instead of only once, or twice, in March or April. 
I say, or twice, because it is generally found that some of the 
once-pruned branches die back, and we mostly have to go 
over our trees again, each year, and finish the work by another 
application of knife or secateurs. That the hardiest sorts of roses 
bear the many prunings needed to retard them less well than 
do the Teas, and Hybrid Teas, is no doubt because their 
autumnal vigour is not as great as that of their more delicate 
relations, which can be trusted to give a glorious late yield 
even when pruned in April. 

Rose culture can be pursued as part of what a philosopher 
has called ' the supreme sanity of creation.' From babyhood 
Man is happiest when * making something,' and either a rose 
garden, or a new rose, is undoubtedly no mean contribution 
to the world that God set growing. Some comfort is required 
by every creature. While one person may seek it in rare 
food, drink, sport, or costly raiment, the collection of snuff- 
boxes, blue and white china, stamps, door-knockers, silhouettes, 
the entertaining of celebrities, throw of the dice, dealing of 
cards, millions of men and women prefer to take it in the sight 
of growing Beauty. Fair surroundings, in one form or another, 
are essential to refined souls. The best, ethically, are able, 
I admit, to keep ever within sight such fair purposes and 
ideals, that they can dispense with gardens. But the ordinary 
mortal frets without loveliness often before him. The bene- 
volence of the Divinity is naturally seen more readily through 



20 ROSE GARDENING 

a rose, than through a worm on the path, or the dust and mud 
of the street. 

For a pageant of colour there is nothing hke rose time. The 
hues, hke the scents, heal our nerves, improve us morally, 
infuse new talent into us, compensate us for our past winters 
of disappointment. There is delicate beauty about our lilacs, 
hawthorns and laburnums, under skies of spring turquoise, 
but the richer blend of summer's ultramarine with the crim- 
son, scarlet, copper, orange and gold of the roses, offers a 
more strengthening, revivifying tonic. One, too, that 
remains ours till winter calls on us to become fireside folk 
again. 

Suppose a man enters upon a new tenancy, or buys a free- 
hold, in May or June. He can make his grounds charming 
at once by buying pot roses and sinking them in very rich 
soil, after breaking away just the bottoms of the pots. In 
November he will find that the roots have gone deep ; then 
the sides of the pots should be broken away, and, hey presto ! 
the roses are discovered to be as finally planted as though 
introduced to the garden in the customary manner. 

Rose gardens may be as formal as any carpet-bedding 
design ; indeed, a fine plan can often be worked out from one 
of the bedding patterns of yore. 

Or rose gardens can have no shape, be as wild as hedgerows 
and copses on neglected land. 

Loyalty may be evidenced by one's rosery. There are 
the Scotch roses for the sons and daughters of the kingdom 
of the thistle. Pre-eminent is the King of Scotland, a purple- 
red, streaked with white outside, or often with all the reverse 
of its petals pinky-white, but too generally sent out as York 
and Lancaster. The true type of the latter, for Saxons, is 
half-red, half-white, flatfish of blossom, with pale green leaves 
coated with a fine down, and the twiggiest, thorniest of stems. 
Then, in the Loyalty rosery, roses that have been specially 
loved by, and named after royal, or sanctified, personages 
should be included. 

French sympathies, or ancestry, can be shown by blending 



WHY WE SHOULD GROW ROSES 2i 

the French roses, Rosa galHca varieties, or cultivating exclu- 
sively the thousands of roses raised by Frenchmen. 

The antiquarian ought to make a garden to show how the 
rose came to be as at present ; which would form a memorial 
to the gifted gardeners who, during the centuries, have bred 
and improved the race of the rose for us. The roses should 
be labelled and placed according to dates ; Gloire de Dijon, 
Madame Falcot, Jules Margottin and General Jacqueminot 
were introduced in '53 ; '58 saw the debut of Celine Forestier, 
welcomed, but feared as very dehcate. These, and plenty 
more olden sorts, are obtainable now ; but happy is the fancier 
who can discover the pink Hebe's Cup, the rosy-Hlac, white 
striped Duke of Devonshire, or a real Beauty of Billiard, 
' middle-sized, of compact form, colour like a burning coal, 
actually shining as though on fire.' 

We may read of, and long for, a ' River's George the Fourth, 
English flower, very dark and velvety, raised from seed ' ; 
for the Old Double Yellow ; for Mossy de Meaux, that throve 
best on arid soil ; for Rose A Odeur de Dragees, whose almond 
fragrance filled our great-parents' bowers, a pale flesh flower ; 
for the hght salmon Queen of Perpetuals ; the red and flesh 
striped, double-cupped Striped Perpetual or Panache de 
Giraudon ; for Purpurea grandiflora, a large blooming double 
well-cupped noisette ; for the Oleander-flowered Bourbon ; 
for the original tea rose, single, named The Simple, but dowered 
with a wondrous perfume ; for Bouquet Blanc, the white 
Cabbage ; for the big, cream, double, evergreen Triomphe de 
Bollwyller ; or for the scarlet Eglantine rose called La Belle 
Distinguee. 

But enough ! I shall but be making the mouths of rose 
enthusiasts water uncomfortably. 

An old author states : ' Those who are fond of tracing Celtic 
etymologies derive the word Rose from the Celtic Rhodd or 
Rhudd, red, whence it is alleged comes the Latin rosa.' Possi- 
bly this is as wise and probable a surmise as to trace the origin 
of King David's harp to Wales, or to suppose the old Roman 
toga and cornamusa originated the plaid and bagpipes of the 



22 ROSE GARDENING 

modern Caledonian. But Celts are at full liberty to cherish 
the theory. As all flowers began as white, or cream, so it is 
said, the first rose to receive a name was not likely to be 
called red ; however, the title may have been conferred at 
a later period of history. We do know for certain that the 
garden rose has been cultivated from time immemorial, and 
double roses are mentioned in chronicles of above two thousand 
years ago by Herodotus, Theophrastus and Athenaeus ; while 
Pliny enumerates several sorts besides the well-known Cabbage 
rose {Rosa centifolia) : 

' The floweret of a hundred leaves, 
Expanding while the dew-fall flows 
And every leaf its balm receives.' 

Whether we elect to manifest the glories of the Rose of the 
past or the present, rose-growing will be a delight to ourselves, 
our neighbours, and our friends. 

Small space is no veto ; 100,000 roses viewed en masse 
do not identify themselves with us as do ten cultivated by 
our living-room windows ; the latter will be our pets, our 
familiar consolers, our floral children ; the former will be 
merely a breadth of colour, a noble landscape feature, a legi- 
timate show-off. 

Roses are less trouble, and cost less, than either bedding- 
plants or herbaceous ones ; they are especially to be recom- 
mended for front and back gardens to ladies who, being not 
strong enough to do much manual labour, and without much 
spending-money, will be able to prune, feed, dis-bud, and 
occasionally water these trees during droughts. If the hoe 
is kept busy upon the surface of beds and borders, and insects 
are prevented from spoiling the blooms and foliage, their 
roses will flourish. Whereas, if bedding-subjects had to be 
renewed for spring and summer, or overgrown perennials 
lifted and divided, either the cost of floral ornaments would 
be considerable, or the services of a man and a spade would 
become necessary. 

The sad and lonely should grow roses, for there is solace in 



WHY WE SHOULD GROW ROSES 23 

giving away big baskets of the produce to other poor lonely 
and sad folk who are without such flowers. The gay should 
grow roses as a symbol of their gladness, or maybe, to have 
their too exuberant mirthfulness a trifle sobered by the anxi- 
eties inseparable from any pursuit. For the greatest happi- 
ness is not noisy and thoughtless — but deeply quiet. 

The hobby is for the child, the adult, and the aged. The 
last will probably gain from it the fullest serenity, through 
knowing that it is well for the best splendours of earth to be 
fleeting, since that sets us at liberty to hope most from glories 
soon to come. 

If we are unable to have roses in glasshouses, let us console 
ourselves by the reflection that no rose, grown under exotic 
conditions, has ever the robust comeliness of its sister of the 
open air. 

If we possess much land, let us write up, in some arbour, 
these lines of the Abbe de Lille : 

' To me the garden a vast picture seems ; 
Be painter then. The ample fields around ; 
Their varying shades unnumbered that display 
The vivid rays of light, or mass of gloom ; 
The hours, and seasons, and revolving still 
The circle of the year and circle of the day ; 
The meads in variegated beauty bright ; 
The ever-cheering verdure of the hills ; 
The streams ; the rocks ; the rivers ; and the flowers, 
Thy pencils these, thy canvas, and thy tints.' 

But if we own, or rent, but a few rods, let us paint a perfect 
rose miniature, and cease to long for a huge canvas, realizing 
that it is as good a work to encircle a little homestead exqui- 
sitely as to colour a solitude. 

Roses always seem to me to be eager to make our gardens 
beautiful. Plant them, then, tend them lovingly, and reap 
the harvest gratefully. 



CHAPTER II 
RAMBLERS 

' A white rose, delicate 
On a tall bow and straight ; 
Early comer, early comer, 
Never waiting for the summer. 

' For "If I wait," said she, 
" Till times for roses be — 
For the musk-rose and the moss-rose — 
What glory then for me 
In such a company ? — 
Roses plenty, roses plenty. 
And one nightingale for twenty ? 

' For I would lonely stand. 
Uplifting my white hand- 
On a mission, on a mission. 
To declare the coming vision." ' 

E. Barrett Browning. 

IT has been said that all climbing roses are Ramblers, because 
they all ramble, and do not actually climb. But I think 
this a foolish suggestion. It is true that roses will not cling 
to walls or trellises, as do the self-clinging Virginian creeper 
and some sorts of ivy, but neither will clematises, wistarias, 
or a host of the ' climbers ' we value. Plant a Crimson Ram- 
bler, a climbing Hybrid Perpetual, Hybrid Tea, or Noisette, 
by a house wall, and it will be up to the bedroom window, or 
on to the roof, in due time, whether nailed or tied up, or not. 
After a period of very untidy, sprawling, neglected-looking 
over-luxuriance, the stem will thicken, like a tree trunk, to 

24 



RAMBLERS 



25 



support the branches high in air. Nail up one of these roses 
and it will mount amazingly fast. 

When we talk of ' Ramblers ' we certainly give quite a 
loose, disjointed sort of classification ; but we generally mean 
the most rapid-growing roses that possess 
small flowers in bunches, or on long sprays, 
amid a profusion of leaves. Flower shows 
have familiarized us with many charming 
kinds ; if we amateurs fail to recognize 
their differences as to habit, requirements, 
and hereditary influences, we are scarcely 
to blame, since not only is the subject 
naturally complex, but raisers, and other 
scientific rosarians, complicate it by using 
various styles of nomenclature. 

There is no need, for instance, for a 
Crimson Rambler to be listed as a Climbing 
Polyantha in one catalogue, and described 
as a Multiflora in another. The unlearned 
should be catered for in these matters. 
Again, one journalistic article will allude 
to Ramblers as though they were all of 
identical ancestry ; another will mention 
none but Wichuraianas. Now, it has been 
stated that it is most important for the 
cultivator to recognize which Ramblers are 
Wichuraianas, and which are not, because 
the pruning should not be similar. The 
methods are fully detailed in Chapter XXI ; 
I merely mention the case here as 
an illustration of the pitfalls into 
which scientists unnecessarily 
warn amateurs not to tumble. 
Apart from pruning for exhibi- A 

tion, I have proved that the 
Multifloras (or Climbing Polyan- rustic Wood Pillar for 
thas) will thrive if pruned as Rambler Roses. 







26 ROSE GARDENING 

though they were Wichuraianas, and give a glorious garden 
show, 

I had a rampant hedge of Dorothy Perkins, the best-known 
chmbing Hybrid Wichuraiana, that I wished to grow extra 
thick and high ; so I set to work to prove, at least to my own 
satisfaction, that this class of rose can equally well be treated 
as though it were only a Polyantha. I did not cut away 
the old wood, and grow on none but new shoots, but let young 
branches spring out of old stems, as they would. The result 
was a quicker, denser, broader, higher hedge in two years 
than could have been gained in six by the ' right ' method. 
Dogmatism is such a pity when it frightens people off rose- 
growing. Another experiment I tried was with a Euphro- 
syne, which is a Climbing Polyantha of the Crimson Rambler 
order. Instead of cutting it down almost to the ground, 
after planting it against a west wall in autumn, I let it become 
a tree in which the birds of the air could make their nests — 
and did. The result was that it covered the whole front of 
a stable in a couple of years, from ground to chimneys. 

No. Amateurs need not fear to buy and plant Ramblers. 
If they do not cultivate them in the best way of all, there 
are plenty of other ways, to which these accommodating trees 
take most kindly. These, like most other roses, can be cut, 
fed and located variously, according to the divers effects 
they are required to produce, or the exigencies of circum- 
stances ; it is by dealing differently with trees of the same 
variety that the gardener learns the merits and disadvantages 
of rules, gains a respect for the robust wills of the roses them- 
selves, and adds fresh interest annually to his hobby. 

Do we wish all roses to continue blooming all the rose 
season ? That question has been vigorously debated by 
rosarians. No one can settle it, because all persons do not 
think alike (thank Providence), and we cannot put it before 
the country, by a General Election, to see which way the 
vote goes. 

Rotation of beauties is part of a garden's charm. We do 
not want to keep daffodils till November, or start sunflowers 



RAMBLERS 



27 



in May. Let the Ramblers follow the Banksians, have their 
day, and be followed by the later roses. 

How impossible it is to prophesy which will be the first 
' real ' roses out in a garden ! Ramblers 
are not actually the earliest. Usually it 
is a Gloire de Dijon that bursts forth just 
after the tiny Banksians, but sometimes a 
different warm wall climber, possibly a 
Mrs. W. J. Grant, or Madame Alfred 
Carriere, will give the lead. 

Climbing Wichuraianas, of which the 
white single-type flower is sadly neg- 
lected, go on flowering much longer 
than Crimson Rambler and Co. Yet 
there is no other rose that has quite 
the colour of C.R. or gives such a show of 
it, or that embowers the place with such 
prodigality of charm. Do not talk to 
me of Flower of Fairfield — which was 
brought out as a perpetual Crimson 
Rambler^ — not as the latter's rival, at 
all events ; it has its value, but grow it 
beside the beloved C.R., and note the 
points it lacks. It has but yellowish- 
green foliage, not healthy pale emerald ; 
it is paler of crimson, as though more 
water had been mixed with the paint ; 
its blossom is rather papery ; it fades 
soon to a dull tint ; and, ten to one, it 
doeswo^ go on lavishly blooming, but at 
the best, takes a long rest, then may 
bud forth again, feebly. Grow it, by all 
means, in case it beautifies autumn ; but 
never say it is an improvement on dear 
C.R. Besides, the true C.R. blooms quite late enough. 

Shall I attempt to define the chief deliciousness of the 
Rambler roses ? Surely it is their buds, minute, half-deve- 




Iron Support for 
Climbing Rose. 



28 ROSE GARDENING 

loped, coming open, just unfurled ? Is not a bouquet of 
only these, in all stages, one of the loveliest things in creation ? 
For the little individual, semi-double, or double roses, of 
which the great trusses are formed, are perfect in make and 
spring from perfect sheaths ; the roses have simply chosen 
to be miniatures, as though destined for Fairyland. 

Yes, we must have the Ramblers, and the more represen- 
tatives we can admit into our grounds, the happier for us. 

As pillars they take up a deal of space, for they must go 
high, even though the branches can be wound round and 
round a frame of poles, and this frame, made square or circu- 
lar, can have a width of a yard or more. Indeed, there are 
countless methods that may be tried for supporting Ramblers. 
They often need fastening up owing to the lavish weight of 
blossom trusses. I was once amused to find a gardener who 
kept haymaker's forks for this ; but the prongs, invisible 
under the garlands, certainly held the branches aloft famously. 
The handles were sharpened so that they were easy to drive 
into the ground. 

What an admirable hedge Ramblers afford, supported by 
stout stakes in a double line, as green-pea sticks are set ! 
Or they will cover real pea, or bean faggots, if those are more 
at command, and by the time the faggots have dried and 
become brittle the roses will have wound into a hedge-mass 
of boughs, and grown so strong that no more propping up 
will be necessary. It is an excellent plan to arch many of the 
long shoots right over, like a succession of hoops, and peg 
them down on the other side of the hedge, proceeding thus 
with the shoots on that other side also, besides stretching 
out numbers of branches horizontally, low down, say six 
inches only above the soil. 

A hedge against a fence is, of course, easiest to form. Ram- 
blers are useful, grown thus, to increase the height of boundary 
fences. Ramblers will not thrive on hot walls. It would 
be silly to warn readers specifically that they will not flourish 
on south, or south-west walls, because circumstances alter 
cases. I have known them adorn a south house-front magni- 



RAMBLERS 29 

ficently, where tall trees, on a grass plot, shut off the sunshine 
from them. They will do well with an east wall background, 
better still with a west one, yet they never relish walls ; the 
materials bother them, I believe, be those brick, stucco, plaster 
or stone. Give them wood, trellises for choice, as they are 
air lovers. 

They can be grown as bushes, weeping standards, on rustic 
screens, espaliers, along pergolas, up flag-staffs or other poles, 
on stately painted iron pillars, united by slung ropes or 
wires ; or they can be put on the tops of high mounds, or 
banks level with wall summits, and allowed to trail down- 
wards. The effect will be best if turf is beneath them, or 
they can dip their tips in stream, lake or pool. 

Glades, like the nut walks and bowered alleys of Eliza- 
bethan gardens, can be made with Ramblers. To achieve 
this, plant Ramblers each side of a path and give only such 
supports as must be, to within a sixth part of the height 
required, then bend and arch the shoots over gracefully, cross 
them with their opposite neighbours, and bind them together. 
For supports, have natural wood, ash boughs, willow rods, 
birch poles — slender, to sway a little in the winds, neither 
rigid nor clumsy. Feed the trees generously, as soon as they 
are established, to encourage a copse-like growth of shoots 
from the base. As the alley grows up, the boughs can be 
woven in and out for a close roofing. 

The subject is inexhaustible, but this chapter must be 
brought to a finish with a description of some of the best of 
Ramblers, all suited to the ordinary garden. 



American Pillar. Large single, Hiawatha. A ivhite-eyed crim- 

deep rose, with white in centre, son ; extra effective and vigor- 

and gay gold stamens. The hips ous. 

are handsome in autumn and 

early winter. 

Blush Rambler. A most beauti- mine. 

ful sport from Crimson Ram- Euphrosyne. Bright pink, semi- 



Crimson Rambler. Vivid car- 



bler ; blooms similarly, in large double, extra floriferous ; not 

masses. Blush pink, eclipsed by any later variety. 



30 



ROSE GARDENING 



Flower of Fairfield. Slightly 
■paler than Crimson Rambler. 
Often continues until late au- 
tumn. 

Graf Zeppelin. Can this rose 
be bought now, under that name, 
I wonder ? It is a lovely shade 
of cerise red, and very bountiful. 

Leuchstern. Single. Bright 
rosy carmine, with white centre. 

Lyon Rambler. Carmine-shaded 
pink flowers, in enormous trusses. 
Most valuable and strong. 

Tausendschon. Buff pink, flow- 
ers deepening as they develop. A 
very rapid climber, and one of 
the loveliest. 

Veilchenblau. Blue-heliotrope ; 
often called slate-blue , and adver- 
tised as the Blue Rambler. So 
unique that we should all patron- 
ize it. Placed next a pale pink, 
or yellow, it gives a delightful 
harmony. 

Paul's. Scarlet Rambler. Vivid 
scarlet. 

Evangeline. Single pink, white- 
centred ; a paler edition of 
Hiawatha ; has bronze - tinted 
foliage. 

Sander's White. Very fine 
white. 

Stella. Carmine-red ; white-cen- 
tred. 



Aglaia. Pale yellow ; glossy 
evergreen foliage ; simply ex- 
quisite ; but does not bloom, 
except by chance, until it has 
been established two years. 

The Tea Rambler. Coppery- 
rose. 

Rosa Polyantha. Single white. 

Thalia. The white double, or 
semi-double Rambler. 

White Tausendschon. Blush- 
white, sometimes flecked with 
pink. 

Oriflamme. Brilliant rose, with 
gold-copper sheen, in bunches. 

Tree Climber. Double blush. 

Thousand Beauties. Pink-and- 
carmine. Mid-season flowering. 

Pemberton's White Rambler. 
Pure white, late blooming, almost 
mildew-free. 

Goldfinch. Orange-yellow flow- 
ers, intensely brilliant in bud, 
becoming nearly white as they 
fade. Semi-double. Rampant. 

Geisha. All scarlet-crimson. 
Very showy. 

Fairy. Single white, in large 
clusters. 

Baroness von Ittersum. A 
blend of orange and crimson. 
Perpetual blooming. Vigorous. 

Mrs. F. W. Flight. Pink with 
white centres, enormous trusses. 



CHAPTER III 
WICHURAIANA ROSES 

' When the brow of June is crowned by the rose, 
And the air is faint with her breath, 
Then the Earth hath rest fi'oni her long birth-throes ; — 

' The Earth hath rest and forgetteth her woes. 
As she watcheth the cradle of Love and Death, 
When the brow of June is crowned by the rose.' 

Emily Pfeiffer. 

HOME gardeners have expressed to me frequently their 
bewilderment at the rapidity with which rose fashions 
develop. The Wichuraiana roses seemed to be no sooner 
really introduced — that is, made a fuss over at the great 
shows, boomed in the Press, largely advertised— than the 
number of their varieties exceeded a hundred. There are 
a vast number more now, yet some amateurs know them 
not, or have grown them for years without knowing them 
to be Wichuraianas. Lady Gay and Dorothy Perkins, for 
example, have flung their gorgeous boughs right and left for 
so many seasons that they are old favourites ; yet Wichur- 
aiana herself, single white, dainty, trailing or prodigiously climb- 
ing, as requested, is often examined, at shows, as ' something 
novel.' 

And are not the simple folk wiser than we after all ? 
Wichuraiana herself, the real thing, is still the real rarity, 
whereas the hundreds of popular varieties are but hybrids, 
owning her as one parent. We ought to call them Hybrid 
Wichuraianas ; yet how seldom do we find the prefix used ? 

31 



32 



ROSE GARDENING 



The very title, in many cases, is spelt wrong, as Wichuriana; 
while, to do proper honour to the memory of Herr Wichura, 




GiiriiCr>i,DiiiDujLOrj,,jcDtviu jr_jL.:j' 
3ji^jcj(r:)Lr.;r-3crjc:iL -'(C-k :j 

:ji.jLjrj'-ji...>iLljL.jijc. 

C ., K. J»_U ..liJil. Jl . J.v_ .'j. . .KSj LJ .' 

i. jy.,tjL:o^jC'-^~ji jj^ -L- -' 
■D^-;;ju,iju...j!..,jtUi.ufAi:rn;i,.jL J ~;, ji .' 



BO(^0Ei\ 



PAT'/^ 



Poles for Climbing Roses, to Screen the Corner of a Border. 

the discoverer, in China, in i860, it must be given the extra 
'a.' 

Not till thirty years later did the ever-enterprising Americans 
take up this rose and, by crossing it with others, introduced 




FRAU KARL URUSCHKl {IVhite) 



ULRICH BRUNNER {.Ked) 



WICHURAIANA ROSES 33 

the valuable hybrids that immediately took the public heart 
by storm. 

All Wichuraianas do not climb ; some trail. A gardening 
boy once defined it as — ' You can grow 'em upside down if 
you wants to.' 

They are the roses for planting on banks by a river or 
stream, to trail down to the water, or on the top of grass 
banks or rockeries, to bound tennis lawns, or shut in a rose 
garden. The rampant climbers can be pegged down ; the 
lesser growers can be nailed up. 

They would be worth growing for their leaves alone. Where 
else can we look in the winter garden for such splendid masses, 
canopies, coverings of glossy foliage ? After rains the verdant 
sheen is most remarkable ; in spring the young growth is pea- 
green, flushed with red and copper ; in summer's greatest 
heat and dust there remains a clean, fresh show, generally 
without a touch of mildew and shunned by green-fly and 
other insects to whose taste the softer greyish leaves of other 
classes of roses are more inviting. While all Wichuraiana 
roses are not evergreen, I do not know of one that, under 
ordinarily good conditions, becomes bare in winter. 

By minghng them with Hybrid Perpetual, Hybrid Tea, 
Noisette, Tea, and other climbing roses, we combine the 
wonderful grace of their luxuriant growth, the colour concen- 
tration of their great trusses of small blossoms, with the merits 
of big flowers that are set singly on thick-thorned stems, 
among mammoth leaves of sober greens. By mingling them 
with the Ramblers we obtain a long show of bloom ; for 
many Wichuraianas are late summer, and even late autumn 
flowerers. We must realize, however, that Wichuraianas are 
not healthy when grown against warm walls. 

The following list of some of the charming Hybrid Wichur- 
aianas will assist rose-lovers in making their choice before 
next planting season. Wichuraiana itself, it is perhaps well 
to repeat, is the type rose, the original, the Mother Eve of 
the race, and has single snow-white flowers on rampant 
boughs. 



34 



ROSE GARDENING 



ExcELSA. Classed also as a Ram- 
bler. Generally described as the 
scarlet Dorothy Perkins, but I 
have always found the flowers 
larger, set more apart, in sprays 
rather than trusses ; which gives 
them a superior elegance for vase 
arrangements. 

White Dorothy. A white sport 
from Dorothy Perkins. If too 
well fed becomes streaked or 
shaded with pink. 

Dorothy Perkins. Rose pink. 
Immense clusters. Perfumed. 
Will continue blooming late. 

Lady Godiva. Creamy pink. 
Often flowers as late as October. 

Jersey Beauty. Pale yellow, 
large, single. Rampant. Ever- 
green. 

Dr. van Fleck. Rosy flesh. 

Minnehaha. Pink ; some of the 
individual flowers being a deep 
hue, others light. In loose, grace- 
ful trusses. 

Gerbe Rose. Soft pink ; large 
blooming, semi-double. Per- 
fumed. Not rampant, but strong. 
Blooms all the summer. 

Alberic Barrier. Pale yellow, 
well-formed flowers, not massed in 
trusses, but some grouped, some 
set singly. Tea-scented. Lasts 
long in water or on the tree. 
Very glossy foliage. Continuous 
blooming. 

Gardenia. Deeper yellow, buds 
tinted with orange. The earliest 
to bloom. 

Franqois Juranville. Coppery- 
rose ; large, scented flowers. 
Bronze-tinted foliage. Goes on 
blooming late. 



Paul Transon. Coppery-rose. 
Summer and early autumn 
bloomer. Rampant. 

Hiawatha. Sometimes classed as 
a Wichuraiana, sometimes as a 
Rambler. {See preceding chap- 
ter.) Often blossoms again in 
autumn. 

Aviateur Bleriot. Yellow full 
blossoms, deeper in centre, pro- 
duced in clusters. Rampant. 

Coquinna. Single, wild-rose pink, 
with pale yellow base. 

Delight. Carmine flowers, in 
large masses, among shining 
deep green leaves. Vigorous. 

Shower of Gold. Golden, with 
handsome coloured foliage. 
Early. 

Emily Gray. Yellow, glossy 
foliage. Very valuable. 

CoRALiE. Shrimp-coral. 

Lady Gay. Cerise-pink, or 
cherry. Free bloomer. Rampant. 

Source d'Or. Gold, in large 
masses. Vigorous. 

Coronation. Crimson - headed 
scarlet, splashed with wliite. 
Large trusses. Dark shining 
foliage. Rampant. 

DiABOLO. Fiery red, shot with 
sepia. 

Joseph Billiard. Singlebronzy- 
red. 

Dorothy Dennison. Pink flow- 
ers, with wliite base. A sport 
from Dorothy Perkins. 

American Pillar. Single, deep 
pink - and - wliite. Perfumed. 
Sometimes classed as a Rambler. 
[See preceding chapter.) 

Leontine Gervais. Salmon-rose 
and yelloiv. Early. 



CHAPTER IV 
CLIMBING ROSES 

' O, the faint fragrance of roses, 
Crumpled up, pink and white, in your hand.' 

Alice E. Gillington. 

ROSES that climb, but are neither Ramblers nor Wichur- 
aianas, might be divided into classes ; but we will 
consider them in haphazard fashion, confident that they will 
loose none of their beauty or sweetness through being unscien- 
tifically appreciated. They are all suitable for walls ; most 
of them will give grand displays on arches or pergolas, where 
winds will sweep through them, except the Banksians and 
the more delicate roses recommended for south walls, such 
as the old Lamarque. 

A few words first about the Banksians, which are unique. 
An old writer says of them : ' From China. They are white 
or yellow, half-hardy climbers, which must have plenty of 
space to ramble over and a sheltered situation. If kept in 
bounds with the knife they will only make the more wood, 
and won't flower. Dead wood and irregular shoots must 
be rectified with thumb and finger. The blossoms are very 
small, in clusters, and very fragrant. Were they hardy they 
might be budded on the tallest possible stocks, to make trees 
of the magnitude of Weeping Ashes. For instance, at Toulon, 
there was, in 1842, a white Banksian covering a wall 75 feet 
broad and 18 feet high ; when in full flower, from April to 
May, there were not less than 50,000 to 60,000 flowers on it. 
At Caserta, near Naples, another plant chmbed to the top of 
a poplar tree 60 feet high. At Goodrent, near Reading, there 

35 



36 ROSE GARDENING 

was a Yellow Banksian which, in 1847, produced above two 
thousand trusses of flowers, with from six to nine expanded 
roses on each truss.' 

Interesting facts, these, yet they leave the Banksian rose's 
charm to be inferred. And what a charm it is ! To open a 
bedroom window in April, and lean out over the compact wee 
golden, or white, roses and inhale their delicious scent, is to 
have a foretaste of summer. And even when summer arrives, 
with all her other rose pageantry, we shall find ourselves 
regretting the Banksians that did their bit so early, and are 
mounting now, instead of blooming, that they may frame 
our windows more generously still another April. 

This kind is certainly but semi-hardy, inasmuch that it 
must have a south wall ; yet the trees often live for fifty years 
or longer. For this, they must be well fed ; mixed farmyard 
manure, quite decayed, is best for their special constitutions, 
and should be dug into their border twice a year, in February 
or March, and in October. Failing mixed farmyard manure, 
cow or pig manure will do ; horse manure is less suitable. 

The frequent complaint, ' The Banksians have not flowered 
this year,' will not be heard if pruning is done directly the 
blossom has died. Use finger and thumb, by all means, where 
possible ; knife or secateurs for stronger branches, rubbing 
wet clay on any large wounds that have to be made. Remove 
all coarse shoots that would overcrowd others, and tip every 
other shoot. Then do not touch the trees again until they 
have flowered once more. 

There is a very fascinating rose called Banksiafolia. I 
must confess that I do not know its origin, but it has very 
similar foliage and possesses scented bunches of white-and- 
buff blossom, produced from the end of June until winter. 

Lamarque has been named as a south-wall rose. It has 
the queer habit of giving creamy-buff, or lemon, flowers out of 
doors, and nearly pure white ones under glass ; the perfume 
is about perfect in either case. One of the oldest roses we 
still have, dating back to 1830 : a Noisette, which makes its 
delicacy strange. On a warm wall, though, it is not likely 



CLIMBING ROSES 



37 



to be killed by any frost, and it yields a real profusion of 
blooms. 

Celine Forestier is another semi-delicate Noisette, primrose 
yellow. Oh, what a lot of feeding it needs to make its stems 
strong enough to hold up the roses ! The foliage is pale 




A Garden for Colour, Scent and Sound. 



green, the scent excellent. People are fond of saying ' it is a 
variety that has been superseded.' This is, of course, a matter 
purely of individual taste. 

Reve d'Or I prefer, if one must make a choice. It grows 



38 ROSE GARDENING 

strongly, has dark ruddy-tinted foliage and deep yellow, 
large blooms. 

Buy Fortune's Yellow, if you can be sure of obtaining the 
genuine article. Here is an old author's account of it : 

' I had been much struck by the effects produced by this 
rose in the gardens of Northern China, where it was highly 
prized, and I had no doubt it would succeed equally well in 
this country. But from some cause^ — probably ignorance 
as to its habits or the treatment required — my favourite 
Wang-Jan-Ve, as the Chinese call it, was cried down. It 
had been planted in situations where it was either starved 
or burnt up ; and in return for such unkind treatment the 
pretty exotic obstinately refused to produce any but poor, 
miserable flowers. Then the learned in such matters pro- 
nounced it quite unworthy of a place in our gardens among 
English roses ; and I believe, in many instances, it was either 
allowed to die or was dug up and thrown away. Five or 
six years had elapsed since the introduction of this fine climber, 
and it had never been seen in its proper garb. But the results 
in two places proved it to be a rose nearly as rampant as the 
old Ayrshire, quite hardy, and covered, from the middle of 
May, with hundreds of rather loose flowers, of every shade 
between a rich reddish-buff and a full copper-pink. The old 
standard plants in the open ground were one mass of bloom, 
the heads of each being more than four feet through.' 

As a matter of fact. Fortune's Yellow is a gorgeous orange 
at its best, a ruddy-shaded apricot when it happens to be 
sulky. 

Surely we cannot afford to be without such a charmer ? 
Beautiful though countless of our new roses are, they do not 
rival it. (I suspect Madame Hector Leuilhot of trying to do 
so, however ; she is so like a resuscitation, or a modern version, 
of Fortune's Yellow.) 

The author adds of this rose : ' It is perfectly hardy scramb- 
ling over old walls ; but it requires a rich soil and plenty of 
room to grow. The Chinese say that night-soil is one of the 
best manures to give it. Only fancy a wall completely covered 



CLIMBING ROSES 39 

with many hundred flowers of varying hues — yellowish, 
salmon and bronze-like — and then say what rose we have in 
the gardens of this country as striking ? ' 

Fortune's Yellow succeeds splendidly as a climber under 
glass, in a rich border-bed of greenhouse or conservatory, 
and directly one enters the building one is greeted by its full 
perfume. Another name it owns is Beauty of Glazenwood. 

A chapter in this book is devoted to Marechal Niel, so let 
it suffice to remark here that it can be grown on a south wall, 
in most parts of England not reckoned bleak, especially if 
there is a recess, or alcove, of brick in which its lower stems 
can find shelter from east winds. 

I am frequently asked what roses can be grown on north 
walls ? I feel inclined to answer : ' For the roses' sake — don't 
try.' Only I know the pride of having a cold wall made fair 
by the Queen of Flowers, and can sympathize with the pre- 
dicament of the rose-lover who has no better wall to offer 
her. 

Well, the Ramblers and Wichuraianas often succeed ; so 
does Felicite Perpetue, and if she does not give many of her 
ivory blossom clusters, there will yet be the glossy foliage. 
J. B. Clark, crimson-scarlet, seldom disappoints ; Longworth 
Rambler, crimson, semi-double, throve with me ; Dundee 
Rambler, white, edged with pink (Ramblers with a difference, 
not of the Crimson Rambler family), and the Dawson Rose, 
a rampant grower with masses of pale pink blooms on pendant 
boughs, can be tried with every confidence. I always advise 
also the Hybrid Sweet Briar, Catherine Seaton, and the 
ordinary Rosa Rugosa, or Japanese rose, for covering the 
wall rather lower down. Really, all the Hybrid Briars are 
suitable for walls ; if they are alternated with tall climbers 
there will be red-and-orange-tinted autumn leaves, and scarlet 
and amber hips, after a long yield of flowers. Other roses 
for north aspects are Bennett's Seedling and Thoresburyana, 
both white. 

Most roses do well on west walls, especially Madame Alfred 
Carriere and the good old Gloire de Dijon. 



40 ROSE GARDENING 

An east wall needs a rose that is not much attacked by 
pests or the diseases which east winds always seem to bring, 
but probably only prepare the way for, by weakening the 
trees and drying up the healthy sap that, like healthy blood, 
can enable life to resist sickness and endure injuries without 
much hurt. Evergreen, or very glossy foliaged roses should 
be chosen. Aglaia, the yellow Rambler, is an example. 
Griiss an Teplitz, scarlet-crimson, has done well in my garden, 
also Hybrid Briar roses, and Rugosas, which can be trained 
as climbers. Evergreen Gem, buff-yellow, scented as a briar, 
opening quite white, is a pretty thing to watch, and invariably 
admired in vases. Rene Andre, semi-double flowers, two to 
three inches across, orange- or carmine-marked yellow, tea- 
scented and glossy leaved, and Jersey Beauty, a single yellow, 
might be planted against an east wall or fence as experi- 
ments. Ards Rover, too, would probably make himself at 
home. A wall that will not take nails is a genuine trial. 
There is the expedient of putting trellis woodwork against 
it, but this will have to be painted sometimes, and the roses 
will suffer unless the greatest care is taken in unfastening 
them and bending them forward, to poles, till they can be 
replaced. A wire trellis is apt to hurt young growth. The 
best plan is to call in a builder to drive strong staples at wide 
distances. Tarred strings, passed between these, will support 
the lighter boughs of climbing roses, and the stout branches 
can be fastened to the staples themselves. 

There is not the least obligation to grow as climbers only 
such roses as are marked ' climbing ' in growers' catalogues. 
Where a rustic screen, or fence, or trellis, has to be orna- 
mented, or a summer-house clothed, and six-foot ornaments 
are sufficient, very beautiful displays are to be obtained from 
robust Hybrid Perpetuals, Hybrid Teas, and Teas ; if the 
locality is a chilly or wind-swept one, these roses will do 
better than similar varieties grown as bushes or standards, 
pillars or half-standards. Hybrid Perpetuals I have used 
thus with success are Uhich Brunner, cherry red ; Margaret 
Dickson, blush ; and Duke of Edinburgh, vermilion ; the last 



CLIMBING ROSES 



41 



being a rose that only flowers satisfactorily when very little 
touched by the knife. 

A mixed lot of roses to grow against supports of some kind 
are La France of '89, deep pink ; Baroness Rothschild, pale 
pink ; Helen Keller, salmon-rose ; Marie van Houtte, lemon 
shaded with pink ; Madame Hoste, lemon ; Madame Pierre 
Cochet, apricot-orange; and Betty, rose-and-gold. It is a 




A Garden of Rose Hedges and Pillars on Turf or Gravel. 

capital plan to alternate climbers and non-climbers against 
wall or fence, training the latter as horizontally as possible 
over the bare lowest stems of the tall growers. 

Occasionally a landlord proves fractious, and will not allow 
climbers to be placed against his walls. The way to improve 
a house in that eventuality is to plant pillar roses a couple 
of feet from it, and a yard or a couple of yards apart. Three 



42 



ROSE GARDENING 



yards will be best if rampant roses are used, and their boughs 
should be tied along stout cords or wires slung from pillar 
to pillar. 

The terraced walk under a verandah may be enclosed on 
the outside by a hedge of roses, or by espalier roses, or roses 
against wooden trellis work, four feet or more high. The ends 
of verandahs can soon be turned into arbours by embowering 
them in climbing roses. 

To attempt even to give a full list of climbing roses would 
make this book too much like a florist's catalogue. Every 
rose-lover, I am certain, sends for such lists and pores over 
them fondly, unless deterred by the sad consciousness that 
there are no shillings even to be spent on the pleasure grounds. 
So I will content myself with suggesting some of the too- 
neglected varieties, some that are not generally familiar though 
of sterling quality, some of the newest, some of the oldest ; 
the prominent charm of each will be found out by attention 
to the descriptions. 



Alistair Stella Gray. Noi- 
sette. Perpetual blooming. Pale 
yellow. Fragrant. In clusters. 

Climbing H. V. Machin. Hybrid 
Tea. Scarlet-crimson. 

Bardou Job. Hybrid Tea. A 
wonderful black-shaded crimson. 
Single large. 

Billiard et Barre. Tea. Ex- 
quisite golden buttonhole rose. 

Cheshunt Hybrid. Hybrid Tea. 
Of a rare cherry-red shade. 

Carmine Pillar. Single car- 
mine, brilliant, and very free 
blooming. 

Climbing Lady Hillingdon. 
Yellow. 

Sarah Bernhardt. Scarlet-crim- 
son, with real vermilion blushes. 
Only semi-double , but enormous 
and deliciously sweet. 

Climbing Cramoisie Sup£rieur. 
The little flowers are so double 



and exquisitely formed, so round 
and dainty, that this rose is un- 
like all other climbers of similar 
height. It simply blooms 
throughout summer and autumn, 
and is a rich crimson. 

Climbing Cumberland Belle. 
The climbing pink moss-rose. 

Climbing Irish Fireflame. Hy- 
brid Tea. A marvellous com- 
bination of orange, madder-car- 
mine, etc. Single. Free bloom- 
ing. 

Crepuscule. Noisette. Buff, 
tinged with red. A full rose of 
great effectiveness. 

Madame Isaac Perri^re. A 
Bourbon rose. Very large and 
double. Carmine. Vigorous. 

Moonlight. Hybrid Tea. Use- 
ful because a white cluster rose, 
that blooms all the season and is 
scented. 



CLIMBING ROSES 



43 



ZfepHYRiNE Drouhin. Hybrid 
Bourbon. A rose without a 
thorn. Carmine - rose. Very 
sweet. Constant bloomer. 

Paul's Lemon Pillar. Pale 
lemon, large, full - formed. 
Strong, but best on wooden fences 
or up pillars. Very fragrant. 

Rubin. Purplish-red. Large, 

full, and hardy. Especially ap- 
propriate for giving warm colour 
on white or grey walls. 

Conrad Meyer. A rugosa, or 
Japanese rose. Large, semi- 
double ; silvery pink, perpetual 
blooming, strongly scented. 
Mostly a six-foot kind. 

L'Ide;al. Noisette. Nothing 
really rivals the orange-red shade 
of this veteran rose. 

Noella Nabonnand. Hybrid 
Tea. Huge semi-double carmine 
rose flower with a velvety texture. 
Sweet. About ten feet high as a 
rule. 



Climbing Paul Lede. Carmine- 
rose and salmon. 

Evergreen Gem. Hybrid Briar. 
Buff-yellow with white ; double. 

Pink Rover. Gives large pale 
pink roses, deeper pink in the 
centres. Hardy and tall. 

Macrantha. a big single white, 
with extra handsome yellow 
anthers. Hardy. 

Climbing Richmond. Crimson. 

Climbing Chatenay. Pink. 

Paul's Scarlet Climber. Scar- 
let-crimson, semi-double, in big 
clusters. Remarkable for the 
length of time that the floivers last. 

Mermaid. Single, sulphur yellow, 
constant bloomer, with dark 
bronze-tinted foliage. 

Viridiflora. The green rose. A 
curiosity. 

Titania. Copper-crimson buds, 
salmon-crimson flowers. 

Climbing Ophelia. Hybrid Tea. 
Salmon-rose. 



CHAPTER V 
GREAT FULL ROSES 

' 'Twas a Jacqueminot rose 

That she gave me at parting ; 
Sweetest flower that blows, 
'Twas a Jacqueminot rose, 
In the love-garden close. 

With the swift blushes starting, 
'Twas a Jacqueminot rose 

That she gave me at parting.' 

Arlo Bates. 

SHALL I be voicing the opinion of a large majority when 
I say that, to give thorough gratification, a rose, other 
than a cluster-bloomer, must be either fully double or a big 
single ? — Thorough means a lot, of course. There are roses, 
such as Mevrow Dora van Tets, that have some startling 
perfection or originality that atones for the scarcity of petals ; 
in Dora's case it is her scarlet tulip-like effect, for no other 
rose of brilliant vermilion is that peculiarly elegant shape. 
But speaking generally, semi-double roses are not real food 
for one's rose hunger, not filling enough, as a boy might say 
of wafer biscuits. 

When we come to the selection of roses for garden decora- 
tion only, we shall realize that semi-double or loose-petalled 
varieties are of value ; as a rule they are the kinds that give 
prodigious harvests, keep on and on, as though they could 
never be tired out, and have most gorgeous, or exquisitely 
delicate, or tender colourings ; frequently they can at the 
same time be praised for scent, and may be gathered in gene- 
rous branches, set with perfect foliage and tipped with ideal 
buds. Slim pointed buds, too, that have supreme grace, 

44 



GREAT FULL ROSES 



45 



a lightsomeness of effect to which the buds of stalwart-stemmed, 
intensely double roses can never aspire. But, for looking 
into, give me the great full roses. What pride we can take 
in the deep, deep heart of a wonderful rose, a firm mass of 
countless closely-curling petals. In death, as in life, those 
petals will cling together ; whole sections of the heart will 
be swept up and burnt, or buried. What admirable ' waste ' 
of structure ! What divinely-created symmetry for our 
delight. It has been argued that the cleverness of Man has 
called the double rose into existence, yet who but Providence 
supplied the raw material, renews it fresh very minute of 
time, or teaches the 
mystery we call a rose 
to grow into such per- 
fection in the summer's 
sunshine ? It is quite 
out of the question to 
decide which is the 
' doublest ' rose ; so we 
will content ourselves 
with paying homage to 
many of the best. 

Firstly, it will be well 
to recollect that good 
culture, demanded by 
all roses, is extra needed, 
and merited, by the 

great full ones. A weak specimen of an intensely double 
flower is worse, because more disappointing, than a weak 
specimen of a decorative or loosely-formed one. The tree 
must be strong, full of life and sap, that the stems may be 
equal to holding up the beautiful flowers. 

Plenty of manuring, wisely diversified, will give the trees 
every chance. Chapter XXII deals with this food question. 
Plenty of watering, of pruning, of hoeing round, of mulching 
and of syringing are required. A giant needs a large bed and 
meal ; while a pigmy can put up with a cot and small rations. 




Leaf of Hybrid Perpetual Rose. 



46 



ROSE GARDENING 



There is compensation for the cultivation of huge sohd 
roses, for they are far less trouble in other ways than are the 
slender, flappy, semi-doubles to keep in health. Mildew 
attacks some of them, it is true — Margaret Dickson, that 
great, flattish pale flesh, or blush beauty, for example ; but 
it is really a mistake to take her for any sort of illustration, 
owing to her being some kind of a freak, or at least an eccentric. 
Queer, is it not, that she refuses to be produced by cuttings ? — 
At least, so 'tis said, and neither I nor any of my friends 
have contrived to prove the saying false. A rose that has 
such a pronounced peculiarity is an uncanny thing. All the 
dearer, of course, for being incomprehensible. 

Mildew is a malady that 
attacks the strongest trees ; 
but when a stout grower is 
seized upon by a disease or by 
insects, it is, naturally, not 
much trouble to cure. The 
robust specimen of Rose can 
defy weather that would 
threaten the very lives of 
fragile members of the race. 
The cutting east winds fol- 
lowing closely upon the prun- 
ings will be found to have 
shrivelled much youthful leafage, but will not have even 
blacked the tips of the great healthy rose's greenery. An 
awful spell of iron-hard frost will leave gaps only in the beds 
of less vigorous roses. 

This is one reason why the robust roses ought to be kept 
by themselves. Another is that delicate ones grown near 
them are bound to be more delicate, unless extraordinary 
care is taken in supplying them with compensating quantities 
of foods and water. Even so, so difficult is it to understand 
the precise soil-ingredients for which they are yearning, they 
are almost sure to suffer. The giants will have drawn that 
particular force-giving something from the earth all around. 




Leaf of Rambler Rose. 



GREAT FULL ROSES 47 

A gardener's wits are not often equal to measuring just the 
amount that must be made up to the surrounding roses, and 
the cleverest gardener's time has such a cruel way of becoming 
deficient. Perhaps the extra feeding of those roses is one of 
the jobs that do not get done, simply because a man hasn't a 
dozen pairs of hands and unlimited hours. 

Then, even if perfect culture is achieved, the enormous 
leaves, rigid thick stems and heavy great blooms of the big full 
roses make smaller, lighter-formed types of roses look foolish ; 
while they, in subtle revenge, make the giants look coarse. 

Keep the grand monsters by themselves, is the counsel I 
give. 

Allow the trees plenty of room — too much, if you can. 
Let them be staked with wood of adequate girth, painted 
dull brown or rose-leaf green. Greediness in the quantity 
of buds allowed will prevent the opened roses from being 
the variety's best. Of course, when a large full rose tries to 
flower in bunches, two, three, four buds pressing] together, 
it is folly not to remove all but one on that stem or shoot 
while they are the merest babies ; all details of which culture 
are fully explained in future chapters. 

The beginner going in for a collection of big full roses 
should start by buying some of the older Hybrid Perpetuals, 
such as the following : — 

General Jacqueminot. Pur- Her Majesty. Bright satiny 

plish-shaded crimson. rose. 

A. K. Williams. Bright crimson. Louis van Houtte. Fiery red, 

Baroness Rothschild. Pale shaded crimson. 

flesh. Merveille de Lyon. White. 

Beauty of Waltham. Cherry- Tom Wood. Cherry red. 

crimson. Horace Vernet. Velvety crini- 

Charles Lefebvre. Velvety son-purple. 

scarlet-crimson. Madame Victor Verdier. Light 

Dr. Andry. Deep carmine-red. crimson. 

Duke of Teck. Crimson-scarlet. Marie Baumann. Red. 

Extra bright. Reynold's Hole. Maroon crim- 

DuKE OF Edinburgh. Real ver- son. 

milion. Prince Camille de Rohan. 

DuPUY Jamain. Cerise. Deep crimson-maroon. 



48 ROSE GARDENING 

Nobody should be deterred from buying older roses because 
people say that the new are so much better ; the antiques 
should not be forgotten. Believe me, there is a fascination 
about the veterans that ought to endear them to us still. 

There are differences in the doubleness of double roses. 
One may be large, full, but fiat when fully expanded, some- 
what the shape of a prize double hollyhock blossom ; others 
are long and pointed as buds, so have pointed or peaked 
deep centres when fully matured, and may die before really 
opening. Examples of this shape are numerous. The most solid 
roses seldom go to pieces utterly, but fall in lumps, if the 
inelegant expression can be forgiven. Two that occur to my 
mind are — 

Frau Karl Druschki. Pure George Arends. The pink Dru- 
white, with pink-flushed buds. schki. 

The olden description of the ' properties ' a rose must have 
were given thus by the famous authority, Glenny : 

' I. The petals should be thick, broad and smooth at the 
edges. 

' 2. The flower should be highly perfumed, or as the dealers 
call it, fragrant. 

' 3. The flower should be double to the centre, high on the 
crown, and regular in the disposition of the petals.' 

Now, Merveille de Lyon and Frau Karl Druschki are both 
white roses, fully entitled to the description double or full, 
yet they are striking contrasts, the former being flat, the 
latter deep and pointed. Each is lovely, so let us have them 
near together, as an interesting object-lesson. 

The lover of large full roses should add some, at least, of 
the following to his collection : — 

Cleveland. Reddish copper on Sir Rowland Hill. Mulberry 

old rose. claret. 

George Dickson. Crimson. Victor Hugo. Crimson-red. 

Gorgeous. Orange-yellow, flushed Gloire de Margottin. Brilliant 

with reddish copper. red. 

Pride of Waltham. Pale sal- Hugh Dickson. Scarlet-shaded 

mon-pink. crimson. 




MADAME EDOUARD HERRIOTT 

( The ' Daily Mail ' /v /J.5..') 



GREAT FULL ROSES 



49 



Marchioness of Ormonde. Hy- 
brid Tea. Straw yellow, 
with carmine shading on reverse 
of petals. 

Lady Dixon. Hybrid -Tea. 
Apricot-salmon. 

Candeur Lyonnaise. White. 

Louis Crette. A Druschhi-like 
white rose, just shaded with 
straw. 



Hugh Watson. Crimson, flushed 

with carmine. 
Mrs. George Marriott. Hybrid 

Tea. Cream, flushed rose and 

vermilion. 
Mrs. Dunbar-Buller. Hybrid 

Tea. Rosy carmine on yellow. 
Senorita Carmen Sert. Hybrid 

Tea. Indian yellow with pale 

carmine-pink. 
Nellie Parker. Hybrid Tea. 

Creamy white, flushed with faint- 
est pink. 

There are others, of course, and by the time the rose-lover 
possesses these, the collector's zest will be so strong in him 
that he will be sure to search high and low for more great full 
roses. 

Hybrid Teas are first favourites with the public ; there is 
no doubt about that. 
New varieties come out 
by the score annually, 
and connoisseurs are 
annoyed because many 
of the new bear so 
strong a resemblance to 
the old that they sim- 
ply confuse the market. 
One may read descrip- 
tion after description of 
these modern arrivals 
and find the reiterated 
phrases, ' Semi-double,' 
' Rather a loose flower,' 
' Good decorative rose.' 
Fullness is no longer de- 
manded, it seems; buyers 

are content if there is a chance of having a blazing colour 
show in the garden, and grace, scent and colour on the dining- 
table. It consequently behoves the collector of big plump 




Leaf of Tea Rose. 



50 ROSE GARDENING 

roses to be careful. The finest Hybrid Tea there is must 
surely be still La France ? Duchess of Albany is a deeper 
rose version, but lacks the absolute charm. I think I am 
correct in stating that not even among her descendants can 
such a glorious firm flower be found as that of La France. 
Note how her blooms fall without having had time to unfurl, 
so nobly is she dowered with petals within petals. I am 
speaking, naturally, of a healthy and well-nourished La France. 
The peculiar shape, those over-curls to the rose-pink, satiny 
petals, make her recognizable anywhere by the veriest amateur. 

' Oh, that's La France,' he says at a show, or before a 
florist's window. ' I could pick it out among a hundred roses.' 

La France of '8g, deep red-pink, beautiful though it is, is 
not full enough in all seasons and soils, circumstances and 
situations for this list we are making. No doubt some of the 
recommended roses have proved disappointing in the matter 
of doubleness in some gardens, but I have found them admir- 
able, and one can but speak of a rose as one finds her. 

Beaut£; de Lyon. Coral-red. Grange Colomb. Pale flesh-pink, 

[A Hybrid Pernetiana.) deeper in centre. 

Caroline Testout. Bright pale Lady Faire. [Called also Joseph 

pink ; a very round, full rose. Lowe.) Salmon-pink. 

Cheshunt Hybrid. Cherry-crim- Lady Bowater. Palest flesh, 

son. Laurent Carle. Rosy crimson. 

CissiE Easlea. Yellow, suffused Lyon Rose. Shrimp-pink, 

with carmine. A globular rose. Marcella. Salmon. 

Duchess of Westminster. Melanie Niedlieck. Lemon. 

Deep rosy crimson. Perfectly- Mrs. E. Alford. Clear pink, 

formed flowers. Pointed centre. 

Edward Mawley. Velvet crim- Mrs. Walter Easlea. Crimson- 
son, carmine. 

Earl of Warwick. Salmon- Mrs. W. J. Grant. Rose-pink, 

pink. Queen of Fragrance. Shell- 

Florence S. Paul. Deep rose- pink, petals paler at tip. 

pink. W. E. Lippiat. Crimson, shaded 

Francis S. Key. A good red. maroon. 

George C. Waud. Orange-ver- William Shean. Pink. Very 



milion. 

General McArthur. Velvety Benedicts Sequin. Red-apri- 
crimson. cot, flushed carmine. 



GREAT FULL ROSES 



51 



E. Godfrey Brown. Hybrid 
Tea. Reddish crimson, a giant, 
yet free blooming. 

La France Victorieuse. Hy- 
brid Tea. Pale pink, with deeper 
heart on yellow. 

Lady Anderson. Coral -and - 
gold. 

Mrs. Bertram J. Walker. Cer- 
ise. 

£^TOiLE de France. Deepest 
crimson. Cup-shaped. 

Countess of Derby. Salmon- 
and-rose. 



Dean Hole. Silvery rose, shaded 
with ochre and salmon. 

Duchess of Wellington. Saff- 
ron-yellow, stained with crimson 
and copper. 

Ethel Malcolm. Ivory 
tinted with peach-pink. 

Killarney. Pink. 

Mrs. Cornwallis West. 
cate pink on a white base. 

Mrs. Joseph H. Welch. Bril- 
liant rose-pink. 



white, 



Deli- 



Among Tea roses my choice would be these :- 



Archie Gray. Deep crimson, 
flushed with velvety scarlet. 

Miss M. J. Spencer. Gold 
throughout. Very effective. 

Captain F. Bald. Black-scarlet. 

Lady Dixon. A pricot-and- sal- 
mon-pink. 

Mrs. Henry Morse. Rose-and- 
vermilion. 

KooTENAY. Primrose. 



Bouquet d'Or. Deep yellow, 

shaded with bronze. 
Catherine Mermet. Rosy pink, 

flushed with carmine. 
Madame Hoste. Pale lemon. 
Madame Lambard. Salmon-red. 
Molly Sharman Crawford. 

Greenish white. 
Souvenir d'^lise Vardon. 

Ivory, with yellowish centre. 

Extra big. 

Then there are the Bourbon roses, that are rather delicate 
and succeed best against warm walls, whether they are climb- 
ers or not. The best to include in this list are the familiar — 

Souvenir de La Malmaison. Acidalie. Blush-white. 
Blush. Kathleen Harrop. Pale pink. 

A repetition word of warning shall close this chapter. All 
roses that are to throw giant full blooms must be well grown, 
that is to say, given rich, stiff soil, watered when necessary, 
hoed round, properly pruned and disbudded. A variety 
that exists in poor, arid, neglected soil, and is left to spread 
and tower as it chooses, will scarcely be recognizable as the 
brother or sister of a rose of the same name that is flourishing 
under the loving care of a good master or mistress. 



52 ROSE GARDENING 

Winds and rains will spoil the merely decorative roses of 
the garden, and dash the singles to atoms, before the great 
full roses are injured ; and the latter keep fresh longer in 
vases. 



CHAPTER VI 
LONG-BLOOMING ROSES 

' Why are you sad when the sky is blue ? 

Why, when the sun shines bright for you, 
And the birds are singing, and all the air 
So sweet, with the flowers everywhere ? 

If life has thorns it has roses too. 

' Be wise and be merry . . . ' 

H. COURTHOPE BOWEN. 

WE have already reflected on the much-debated subject 
whether we desire all our roses to bloom early and 
late, and have, I trust, shown ourselves to be modest in our 
requirements, by declaring that we do not always want every- 
thing good at once. If we invariably had plums in our cakes, 
we should weary of the monotony and cry out for plain 
buns. So, although all roses are so beautiful that we might 
be excused for wishing to retain them constantly, let us be 
glad to see our rose garden changing with the months. But 
though we can reconcile ourselves to parting early with many 
roses, we certainly do crave to have some roses with us until 
the end of the floral year. 

After the Banksians come some unclassed pioneers, then 
the Ramblers, the Persian Yellow and Copper Briars, the Wi- 
churaianas ; then the summer roses, such as that magnificent 
pale pink. Captain Christy, and many others, that will not 
bloom again until another June. Then we turn to Hybrid 
Teas, Teas, Noisettes, Dwarf Polyanthas, Mosses, Bourbons, 
Ayrshires, Chinas, etc, etc., to compensate us for the glories 
that are lost. 

But there is this serious side to the matter. In quite a 

53 



54 



ROSE GARDENING 



small garden blanks are very sad to see. The man whose 
breakfast-room window looks out on a rose-covered fence, 
or trellis, becomes sorry for himself in July if he had only 
Ramblers against it, and rightly objects to seeing merely 
leaves all the rest of summer and autumn. That is why 
we do right to unite our climbers, letting late bloomers mingle 
boughs with early bloomers. 

But the man whose breakfast-room window gives view of 







O O 

PoL^f»,N^l^^ Roses / ■'■■'"'■>'/ ,■'.'' 

A Handsome Border of Long-Blooming Roses. 

beds or borders of roses requires, and rightly, to have roses 
* out ' in those, too, during all the rose months. While his 
neighbour may be specializing in great full roses, or roses 
for colour, or scent, or exhibition, he needs chiefly roses for 
long blooming. 

He will find them in several classes. Frau Karl Druschki 
(dwarf or climbing, for she may be had in both styles) is one of the 
most reliable. The Duke of Edinburgh gives splendid flowers 
late if the earlier ones are cut, long-stemmed as though for 
bouquets, before they go to seed, and if the tree is then well 
fed and its surplus branches thinned out. Caroline Testout 



LONG-BLOOMING ROSES 55 

and La France go on and on ; so do Madame Hoste, Lady 
Ashtown Noella Nabonnand, Souvenir de Pierre Nottmg, 
Gloire de Dijon, Catherine Mermet, Madame Lambard, 
Baroness Rothschild, George Arends, Hugh Dickson, Wilham 
Shean, Mrs. W. J. Grant, Dora van Tets, the Lyon Rose, 
also the garden favourite, William Allen Richardson. 

It should be every gardener's aim to get as much as he can 
out of his roses without exhausting the trees ; certamly not 
as many flowers at once as the trees would give if not dis- 
budded, but, firstly, as fine flowers, and then as constant 
and long a supply of many as may be. Summer pruning 
is explained in Chapter XXII. Manures and stimulants are 
dealt with in another chapter. 

Let it be realized that there are circumstances that produce 
stagnation. A tree that is left to become very thirsty any 
time after buds form will receive a check. So will a tree 
that has exhausted the nourishment in the soil, so has begun 
to subsist on the stored-up strength in its own veins, and must 
live on so till its unkind owner comes to its rescue. So will 
an overgrown tree, a tree with bedding plants put in too 
close about it, a tree surrounded by masses of tall, or too 
robust-growing annuals, a tree encroached upon by perennials, 
a tree devastated by green-fly or maggot, a tree attacked 
by rust or mildew, a tree in caked soil that the hoe or fork 
should have repeatedly loosened. 

Receiving a check means either cessation of flowering, or 
the production of many miserable little blossoms. We often 
see a starvehng tree bearing lots of puny pale buds and a 
number of sickly, yellowish leaves, that drop off— shank— 
at the least touch. 

The rose-grower must study which manures encourage 
flowers, which encourage foUage or root production ; then 
he must study individually every tree he possesses, not merely 
every variety, and act in their interests as common sense 

cllCt3.t6S 

If he has a sunless, or rather semi-sunless, bad position 
to fill, he had better give it to one of the roses that bloom 



56 ROSE GARDENING 

late, as by that period of the year the summery atmosphere 
will have warmth even in shadow. If he has to make a 
baking hot corner beautiful he can do it well by planting 
a very early rose, and mulching and watering so generously 
after the initial harvest that ' new wood,' as the classic phrase 
goes — the red shoots that bear more roses — soon follows. 

For years rosarians have been studying rose habits, and com- 
piling lists of varieties that are ' good autumnals ' ; for as many 
years their praiseworthy efforts have been received with 
scant appreciation by captious amateurs, who, not being 
sufficiently exact in rose culture, have failed to get fine late 
supplies from those varieties. The difference between a 
professional and an amateur, in any art or trade, is chiefly 
that the former works patiently and thoroughly, the latter 
by bursts of enthusiasm and with erratic practice. A great 
work cannot be perfectly achieved without method ; but 
once the rudimentary rules of rose culture are understood, 
loyalty in applying them is more essential than further know- 
ledge. It is in doing his duty to the work that the amateur 
usually fails. Then his results are mean, and, growing angry, 
he declares that scientists only succeed by the exercise of 
wonderful formulae that are not revealed, and that the triumph 
he wanted is not to be won without devoting too much time, 
or millions of pounds, to the pursuit. 

A pianist performs his piece so many times, all to himself, 
that he knows every note, every reason for every note, every 
guide to light and shade, every point where expression will 
teU. The amateur at the piano rattles through a number 
more pieces, in his fewer hours, therefore never plays one 
without missing out some notes, losing some melodious chance, 
letting something happen that was not intended. Scamping 
in gardening has just the same effects as scamping a few lines 
in writing a poem, leaving some characters misty in a novel, 
a piece of foreground blurred in a painting, some harmonies 
muddled in a sonata. ... It spoils the whole show. 

Be loyal to your roses, and they will be loyal to you, is 
the text on which all rose-lovers yearn to preach. 



LONG-BLOOMING ROSES 



57 



We have strayed a bit from the subject of the best late- 
blooming roses, but wandering of the sort leads to new views 











Lawn Beds of Long-Blooming Roses. 

and wider panoramas of rose gardening, so are not to be 
considered trivial. 

In addition to varieties abeady recommended there are 
some specially famed for doing royally in autumn. 



Mrs. W. C. Miller. One of the 
very best. 

Donald McDonald. Rose-pink. 

Hadley. Dark red. 

Mrs. Paul. Bourbon. Blush. 
Shaped like a camellia. 

Victor Hugo. Hybrid Perpetual. 
Dazzling crimson. 

Captain Bald. Hybrid Tea. 
Black-scarlet. 

Mrs. R. D. McClure. Salmon- 
pink. 



Richmond. Hybrid Tea. Scar- 
let-crimson. 

Madame Abel Chatenay. Hy- 
brid Tea. Salmon-pink. 

La Tosca. Silvery pale pink. 

General McArthur. Hybrid 
Tea. Scarlet-crimson. 

Lieutenant Chaure. Crimson. 

Madame S. Weber. Pink. 

Mrs. Wemyss Quin. Yellow. 

Earl of Warwick. Hybrid Tea. 
Salmon, flushed with vermilion. 



58 



ROSE GARDENING 



Semi-double 
very beauti- 

Hybrid Tea. 

Hybrid Tea. 



Cynthia Forde. Hybrid Tea. 

Deep rose-pink. 
Conrad F. Meyer. A Rugosa, 

or Japanese Briar rose. Bright 

rose. 
Rugosa Delicata 

Wild-rose-pink ; 

ful. 
Caroline Testout, 

Pink. 
Antoine Ri voire. 

Cream, shaded with flesh ; just 

edged with carmine. 
Alexander Hill Gray. Tea. 

Lemon-yellow. 
King George V. Hybrid Tea. 

Deep crimson, purpleflushed. 
Juliet. Hybrid Tea. Old gold, 

with rosy-red blushes. 
J. B. Clark. Deep scarlet crimson, 

shaded with plum or sepia. 
Duke of Teck. Hybrid Per- 
petual. Crimson-scarlet. 



Catherine Seaton. Penzance 
Briar. Soft pink. 

British Queen. Hybrid Tea. 
Pure white. 

Mrs. Muir Mackean. Hybrid 
Tea. Carmine. 

W. C. Gaunt. Crimson. 

Gruss an Teplitz. Hybrid Tea. 
Scarlet - crimson. Vigorous. 

Fine red-tinted foliage. 

Ulster Gem. Single. Primrose- 
yellow. 

CoRALLiNA. Tea. Rosy Crim- 
son, paling to salmony rose. 

Sallie. Hybrid Tea. Affection- 
ately called ' Butter and Eggs ' 
by some growers. 

Hon. Mrs. R. C. Grosvenor. 
Hybrid Tea. Flesh-and-orange. 

Covent Garden. Hybrid Tea. 
A new ' Cant ' raised rose of igi8. 
Dark plum-crimson. Thick 
stemmed and free. 

There are not many Tea roses that are not late bloomers; 
there are few Hybrid Teas that do not try to rival the Teas ; 
so we may fill our gardens with these, and justifiably hope 
to have roses very long. But the roses just mentioned are 
noted for exceptional late flowering. 

Then there are the China roses, beginning with the dear 
Old Pink. Also there are the dwarf Polyanthas — little gems. 
Both these classes have chapters to themselves. 



CHAPTER VII 
ROSES FOR GARDEN DECORATION 

' Lilacs glow, and jasmines climb. 
Larks are loud the livelong day. 
Oh, the golden summer-prime ! 
June takes up the sceptre of May, 
And the land beneath her sway 
Glows, a dream of flowerful closes. 
And the very wind's at play 
With Sir Love among the roses.' 

W. E. Henley. 

A LITERARY man (who should have known better) once 
said to me, ' What, going to write a whole book about 
roses ? Won't it be rather monotonous ? 

The difficulty is to omit enough, not to put in enough ! 
The subject of Roses for garden decoration would make a 
capital book all by itself. For there are scarcely any limits 
to the effects one may create with roses, the scenes that can 
be wrought with them, the nooks made, the vistas arranged, 
the colours blended, the canopies woven, the ground carpeted, 
the beds planned, the borders invented, the landscape ups-and- 
downs presented, the perfections blended into a perfect whole ! 
We do not do half, or a quarter, or even a fraction, what we 
might with roses. As an example of an original scheme, a 
garden all of grass and roses that I once visited remains supreme 
in my memory. Yet there was no enormous expanse, just 
about three-quarters of an acre, surrounding a modern, double- 
fronted, detached villa ; the owner had made all the ground 
into grass, dissected by curving gravel paths, and planted his 
roses in the turf, so it appeared at least, at intervals that 

59 



6o ROSE GARDENING 

allowed him to wander among them easily, arm-in-arm with 
a chum. In places there were trios, or quintets, of standards, 
groups of half-standards, immense bushes, pillars, bits of irre- 
gular espaliers, but the main plan was to let the roses grow 
singly out of the lawns, far enough apart not to be inconvenient. 

Some Teas were pegged down, some Wichuraianas sprawled. 
That garden from a little distance was marvellously beautiful, 
so unlaboured in character, so greenly restful, yet so brilliant. 
And I am sure the individual roses, the rose varieties too, had 
never had such a chance to display their diverse merits, in 
competition with one another. 

The grass had to be cut by hand-shears round every tree, 
of course ; still, there were no visible beds to be constantly 
weeded and hoed neat ; only a few inches of ground showed 
against the stems of the roses. Spring was very fair in that 
garden, too, before the roses took their turn, for the turf was 
liberally planted with bulbs of innumerable species. 

The garden of roses may be made in order to show off a 
collection, or to be shown off itself by the roses. So the subject 
divides at once into two chief portions. 

As a rule roses get planted for their own sakes ; one has 
to look at some public park, or great estate, to observe their 
elaborate use as ornaments. A round bed of fifty roses — 
say of the Daily Mail rose, Madame E. Herriot, of a blend 
of saffron, copper, scarlet and cerise — strikes a brilliant 
shrimp note ; a bed of King George V looks almost the hue 
of a heather-clad mount ; one of Old Gold resembles the 
tint of a field of ripening corn. It is quite delightful, and 
amusing too, to study rose colours at different distances ; 
the roses must be well massed, of course, for the trial to be 
made fully. A thicket of Griiss an Teplitz appears the hue of 
copper-beeches, because of its ruddy foliage, that melts into 
the scarlet-crimson of the fresh roses and the violet-crimson 
of the fading ones. 

A grove of roses is indeed a spot for dreaming in. It is 
not a pergola, since symmetry and artificial material should 
not be in evidence ; the roses ought to seem to bower naturally 



ROSES FOR GARDEN DECORATION 



6i 



over the walk, and form a roofing of irregular height, tunnel- 
like here and there, high-domed elsewhere. Big-flowering 
roses should be with the small-blossomed, giant singles, 
tiny rosette-flowering climbers should mingle with the grand 
trusses of such fine roses as American Rambler. Long branches 
should arch themselves in their own sweet wilful way ; boughs 
should swing as pendants, only restrained where they would 
endanger the eyes of pas- r 

sers-by ; and all between 
the tall growers, filling up 
gaps beyond them, standing 
in front, leaning against their 
sides, should be the bush 
roses, from majestic Paul 
Neyron (which was the lar- 
gest blooming rose, and may 
be so now, since the new- 
comers advertised as larger 
do not seem to me to eclipse 
old Paul) down to the tiniest 
dwarf Polyanthas, such as 
pure white Katherine Zei- 
met. There is no need to 
use mainly climbers, I mean ; 
all classes of roses can be 
pressed into the service of 
the grove. 

Banks covered with roses 
show them off so splendidly 
that it is possible to have a 
rosery all of banks, and not 

regret it. Banks there should always be, in gardens small or 
large. It is worth while to leave much ground inequality when 
making a new garden, instead of spending considerably on 
ground-levelling, and builder's men should be discouraged from 
tidying up, in their odious fashion, by burying broken 
bricks, stones and cement, to ' make good ' their excavations. 




Rustic Cross for Climbing Rose. 



62 ROSE GARDENING 

There is no need to use chiefly climbers as trailers on banks ; 
pegged-down Teas are very showy when estabhshed, and 
many other kinds of roses are wilHng to sprawl about if per- 
mitted. La France naturally grows straight up, but plenty 
of other favourites spread out ; for example, the white 
Souvenir de S. A. Prince, popular Madame Abel Chatenay, 
the dainty-flowered but robust growing Homere, and Madame 
Jules Grolez, that brightest of pinks. Plant these on a steep 
slope, and their boughs will rest upon its sides. 

It is a fine idea to turf steep hills in the garden, then plant 
rose groups at intervals. I like to see little copses dotted 
about, without method, in which the different types of Rose 
are employed to imitate the purposes of gorse, heather, bracken- 
fern, blackberries, wild clematis, hawthorn, of our field coverts. 

Roses are not half enough used to ramble up tall trees. 
Reine Olga de Wurtemburg will clothe a large silver-birch 
in deep green foliage and scarlet flower without harming 
it ; the result will be one more rare beauty to remember. A 
copper-beech gives too heavy a shade for most roses, but I 
have seen a young one exquisitely climbed by a yellow Rambler, 
Aglaia, which suggested to me that the roadside Prunus 
Pissardi of many a villa front garden might serve as a pillar 
for a William Allen Richardson, since the Prunus is leafless 
so long that the rose would have a good chance. Similarly, 
an almond-tree might be hugged by the slender, fragile- 
looking arms of a white Rambler. 

Rose-covered slopes, when looked down, give sheets of 
colour that are most striking, of course, when only one, or 
at the most two varieties are massed ; yet are very fascinating 
if all rose hues are blended. According to which roses ' do 
best,' in each month, week or day, will the chief colour note 
be struck ; at one time it will be yellow, then scarlet-salmon 
will prevail, or rose-pink, but by the end of summer rich 
crimson is sure to take the lead. 

Anybody who has given even a cursory study to the art 
of decorating the garden by roses, knows that varieties em- 
bracing in themselves blended colours are less effective than 



ROSES FOR GARDEN DECORATION 63 

are ' selfs ' ; also that roses that droop their heads on sHm 
stems are not of much value in the scene, no matter how 
exquisite they may be when gathered or closely examined. 
The Lyon Rose is an exception, because the chrome-yellow 
foundation of the petals so shades into the cherry-red that 
the whole appearance is of a deep shrimp, a rare tint for roses 
not long ago, though now repeated and intensified in some 
of the new introductions. 

By specializing in colours unique garden displays are to 
be easily gained. Imagine a front garden all of lawns, shrubs, 
and maroon and the darkest crimson roses. All passers-by 
would pause to gaze and comment. Imagine a similar garden 
massed with only evergreen shrubs and white roses. How 
striking the combination, yet attained at no more cost of 
coin or labour than goes to the planting of our millions of 
commonplace rose gardens. The maroon show may have 
either a white, grey, or aged dull red-brick house behind it ; 
the white one needs a red-brick background, will make white 
stone look dirty and dreary, stucco an ugly bilious yellow, 
and grey paint gloomy. 

Beds of roses can be diversified as to heights, to prevent 
a tamely level garden-scape. Why, it is possible to have 
a bed of climbers, if these are placed five feet or more apart, 
given colossal stakes, and lesser stakes all round to support 
the lower, spreading branches. One rose may be fastened 
to another, the stakes of all can be shared, till, at last, there 
will be a rose copse, with very little, if any, ground showing 
below. 

Some beds may be all of standards, others all of dwarfs, 
but to make beds real assets in the colour scheme, the vari- 
eties of roses must be carefully chosen and kept separate. 

Leslie Holland, Hybrid Tea, a prodigiously free bloomer ; 
Claudius, Hybrid Tea, carmine-rose, also very lavish from 
early summer to late autumn ; Countess of Gosford, Hybrid 
Tea, deep salmon-pink; Gloire de Chedane Guinoisseau, 
Hybrid Perpetual, a vermilion continual bloomer and most 
vigorous ; Lilhan Moore, Hybrid Tea, deep yellow, are splendid 



64 



ROSE GARDENING 



colour-givers. The last is known as the thousand dollar 
prize rose, because it was the winner at the Panama Pacific 
Exposition as the best new seedling rose. 

Caroline Testout — good old Caroline — has rightly been called 
' probably the best of all garden roses.' A tree of it is far 
more showy than one of La France, because it is all pink, 
whereas the latter has silvery curl-overs to the petals. 




Fan-shaped Support for Roses. 



Original-shaped supports add to the interest of a garden 
scene. There may be a ten, or twelve, feet high cross of rustic 
wood in the midst of a gravel square, paved court or lawn, 
grown up by some climbing rose, whose boughs outline the 
arms and hang from their ends. 

A fan-shaped trellis on a sufficiently giant scale, given 
to a white rose, will have a remarkable, spectre-like effect 
in the garden by night. 

A row of huge targets, made of open-work wire, covered 
by roses that do not hide the shades, will amaze people and 
show the adaptability of the grandest of all flowers, as well 




LADY HILLINGDON (y,;ueu') JOSEPH LOWE (/'/«ii 

RICHMOND {Crimson) 



ROSES FOR GARDEN DECORATION 65 

as affording perhaps a much-needed screen to ensure the 
privacy of a lawn. 

Continuous arches ranged round a lawn may be so tall 
as to look like the boundary to the precincts of some classic 
temple, or amphitheatre of old, or so low as to be but a series 
of pretty hoops. In one part of the rose garden all the plants 
and shrubs may be ruddy, or crimson, as to leaves and blossoms, 
and all the roses cream, white, or pale gold. In another 
part, silver, or white-variegated, and white-blooming trees, 
shrubs and plants can be accompanied by hundreds of 
carmine roses. 

It would indeed be a noble garden that possessed a different 
coloured rosery for every one of the rosy months. 

A few inches of this chapter must be spared for advocating 
the planting of an orchard of roses. Probably no other form 
of rose garden is quite as lovely. Let it be hedged by Japanese, 
Penzance, and other Briar roses, then have a ditch inside 
the hedge where Teas can be pegged down and little dwarf 
Polyanthas nestle. Raise some banks at the ends, unequal, 
undulating mounds among the trees, and plant Wichuraianas 
on some to trail over, and mount great bush roses on others 
—hardy bushes, such as of Conrad F. Meyer, the old Cabbage 
rose, and York and Lancaster, white Boule de Neige, lemon 
Gustave Regis, and strong growers of shades of scarlet-crimson, 
such as J. B. Clark, Hugh Dickson, Reine Olga de Wurtem- 
burg and Noella Nabonnand. Add to these Mosses on their 
own roots, which will straggle luxuriantly, the Scotch 
prickly white roses, and silvery-blush La Tosca, a Hybrid 
Tea that may be called rampant. 

Make a pit or two in the orchard, if there are no natural 
declivities, and learn how grand the big single roses, Irish 
Fireflame, Irish Elegance and Irish Brightness, will look 
growing out of craggy sides. They are orange-scarlet-and- 
apricot, tawny coral-and-gold, and vivid rosy carmine, respec- 
tively. Choose Ramblers and Paul's Single Scarlet to festoon 
the brinks of pits. 
For imitating orchard trees pillars of natural, unbarked 



66 ROSE GARDENING 

tree trunks will be wanted, and for supporting not only climbers 
but all the best of the hardy semi-climbing, and the extra 
vigorous roses, of which Gloire de Chedane Guinnoisseau, 
Caroline Testout, Noella Nabonnand, Maiden's Blush, J. B. 
Camm, a pale salmon, the many strong China roses, Austrian 
Briars and Ayrshires are samples. Let there be turf between 
the trees and some pegged-down roses in the grass. 



CHAPTER VIII 
ROSES FOR GATHERING 

'Fair wave the sunset gardens, 
The rosy signals fly.' 

Whittier. 

IT might be thought that all the so-called ' decorative ' 
roses would be admirable for gathering ; but that is 
not the case. They are free-blooming roses, all of them, 
of non-classic shapes — as the classic in florist's flowers is 
reckoned — having less petals than the really double roses, 
often having those petals set on loosely — petals of elongated 
shape that flap in every breeze ; they open quickly out 
of tapering elegant buds, and then show their yellow stamens, 
or gold hearts as we may more poetically term them. Natur- 
ally they are supremely graceful, which is one of the chief 
merits in vase or bouquet flowers, and they can be cut in 
beautifully bud-tipped and foliaged branches or sprays. 
But many of them drop to pieces too rapidly when gathered, 
and some flag from the first moment they are put in water, 
not having much stamina. 

The big single roses are usually good lasters, owing, no 
doubt, to their having abstained from putting their strength 
into other rows of petals, and they can be taken in the bud 
and semi-opened state with the pleasing certainty that the 
fully unfurled flowers will come to a perfection indoors that 
will beat the perfectness of flowers expanded on the trees. 
For the still, genial air of a room suits their health better than 
a blaze of sunshine and the buffetings of the winds or chance 
showers would do. 

Some of the most double roses are magnificent lasters; 

67 



68 



ROSE GARDENING 



yet the heavier-headed, and more ponderous shaped the bloom, 
the greater the skill needed for their successful arrangement. 

The qualities of individuals need not detain us now, as I shall 
end this chapter with a list of roses that I have found specially 
good for gathering, and using when gathered. The twofold 








The Night-cap Rose Protector. 



A Hanging Cap Rose Shade. 



recommendation means that the trees are generous, and the 
blossoms of satisfactory colours and lastingness. 

Whether roses are desired for gathering for trade or for 
private purposes, the trees should be richly fed, with this 
one precaution, that rank manures are not given them, only 
thoroughly rotten stuff, and chemicals. Coarse feeding results 
in too sappy growth, and often alters the distinctive hues 



ROSES FOR GATHERING 



69 



of the blooms. Soot should be given freely, its sole drawback 
being that, in time, it intensifies the bluish or violet shadings 
in deep rose and crimson varieties, causing them to have 
objectionable magenta flushes directly the flowers begin to 
fade. 

I beheve it is true that, while a scarlet rose is always scarlet, 
a salmon rose salmon, a crimson rose is never its true crimson, 





Wisp of Straw Rose Shade, 
tied between stakes. 



Impromptu Shade made with a 
Box AND Two Sticks. 



and a gold rose misses being more than yellow, if the trees 
are only half-nourished. Of all the roses that show clearly 
the consequences of starvation, La France provides the most 
striking object-lesson. Its well-known blue shading becomes 
an ugly greyish heliotrope that spoils the pink, its intensely 
full petalled blossoms hang in an unwieldy, dejected fashion 



70 ROSE GARDENING 

from weak stalks that render them most awkward for ar- 
ranging ; also, few blooms will be worth gathering, as their 
ball shape, in the bud stage, will oblige most of them to drop 
off before the tree has the strength to send them up the nutri- 
ment required for their rearing. Yet, in a wholesome con- 
dition, La France is an ideal bouquet, or bowl, rose. 

Shading roses is advisable when blooms are wanted for 
exhibiting, and numerous contrivances are sold for this purpose. 
Capital contrivances too ; but if several hundreds have to 
be fixed, the gardener's time is encroached upon. So I would 
keep the manufacturer's shades for those exhibition blooms 
alone, and use tiffany for shading the whole beds and borders 
of rose-trees whose harvest is intended for sale, or for house, 
church, or hall, decoration on a grand scale. 

It is easy to stick long, slender bamboo poles at intervals 
along the edges of borders, or at the sides or corners of 
beds ; if each pole has been plugged with a cork, into which 
a brass-headed nail has been driven, and if the tiffany lengths 
have small rings sewn to their margins, it is equally easy to 
slip rings over nails, and so obtain a lightsome roofing. 

The widest beds and borders are better protected if there 
are a few cross-poles, just bamboos tied horizontally to the 
tops of the uprights, here and there, to keep the tiffany from 
sagging down on to the trees. Hints on arranging gathered 
roses will be found in Chapter XLII. 

We have already thought of ways by which the season of 
roses can be prolonged. The genuine rose-lover will not be 
content till he or she can go a-gathering in most months, 
from frames, glasshouses and stoves, as well as from the 
different ' aspect ' places of the gardens. 

Growing mainly for gathering becomes, of course, a hobby, 
and one of the most charming and unselfish. The garden 
planted for the purpose will be quite sufficiently beautiful, 
though it must lack the high standard of gardens in which 
the show is the aim, whose roses are not cut till past their 
best. Nor will the blossoms cultivated for quantity rank 
as high as those from severely disbudded and hard-pruned 



ROSES FOR GATHERING 



71 



trees For in rose-growing, as in all pursuits, one may not eat 
one's cake and still possess it. Sacrifices are Wisdom, when 
made for some great end. 

The trees should be planted so that they have room to 
spread out freely, yet can be approached very conveniently, even 
when most luxuriantly developed. Indeed, it is best for the 
gatherer to be able to reach them from at least three sides. 




Shade and Bud-hastener, 

made with a sheet of 

Whitened Glass. 



Shade made of an Old Tin 
AND A Bamboo Rod. 



They ought to be in as many positions as possible, on walls, 
against fences, in big bushes and as pillars, climbing over 
summer-houses, porches and arches, pegged down and hori- 
zontally-trained in the open. Roses on espahers are generally 
the healthiest roses in a garden, because they have air on 
all sides, without being tossed by winds, and their own foliage 



72 ROSE GARDENING 

cannot obstruct sunshine, or the heat from the atmosphere 
that solaces those in semi-shady spots. 

Roses on walls or fences are frequently ruined by pressing 
against them ; some tying out to their own branches will 
prevent this, or a wedge made of a ball of matting, or stout 
paper, straw, or bracken-fern, may be forced between stems 
and background, so that a flower stands some inches away. 

It is advisable to let some rose-bud-furnished boughs droop 
downwards, if they incline naturally, as the sap feeds pendant 
flowers soonest, hastens their maturity, and often adds to 
the richness of their colouring. 

A garden of roses for gathering is nicest for the owner if 
the walks and spare places are of bricks, flagstones or tiles ; 
asphalt is sticky in great heat, and ugly until very aged. 
Red gravel, or the beach gravel that consists all of tiny stones, 
are better than turf. 

The bed and border edgings should be of brick, stone or 
wood, if not tiles ; nothing to wet the clothes of the gatherer, 
as box and turf would do. 

The following are excellent roses for picking : — 

Aladdin. Coppery yelloiv. Ecarlate. Scarlet. 

Amateur Teyssier. Creamy Flame of Fire. Orange. 

yellow. Florence Pemberton. Reminds 

Ards Rover. Velvety crimson. one of a pink-flushed waler- 

Carmine Pillar. Bright car- lily. 

mine. Mrs. Wemyss Quin. Lemon, 

Caroline Testout. Pink. tinted, crimson-orange. 

CoMTEssE DE Rafells St. Golden Emblem. Deep gold. 

S A u V E u r. Reddish - orange General Superior Arnold 
shaded with coral. Janssen. Deep carmine. 

C. W. Cowan. A rare cerise- Gloire des Belges. Scarlet- 
carmine, orange-carmine. 

Crimson Chatenay. Bright Gustave R6gis. Canary-yellow, 

crimson. Hadley. Velvety crimson. 

Dan^. a perpetual blooming Harry Kirk. Yellow. 

yellow cluster rose. Henrietta. Fiery orange-crimson, 

Dora van Tets. Called the with cerise-salmon. Very lovely. 

Tulip rose. Vermilion. Hon. Ida Bingham. Rose-pink. 

Duchess of Wellington. Deep Ion a Herdman. Clear orange, 

orange-gold. Irish Beauty. White. Single. 



ROSES FOR GATHERING 



73 



Irish Brightness. Crimson. 

Irish Engineer. Scarlet. 

James Coey. Yellow. 

J. B. Clark. Scarlet-crimson. 

Joanna Bridge. Buff, shaded 
strawberry. A rare colouring. 

LadyAshtown. a beautiful 
rose shade. 

Lady Waterlow. Cream, edged 
pink. 

La France. PiTik. 

La Tosca. Silvery blush. 

Liberty. Brilliant scarlet-crim- 
son. 

The Lyon Rose. Shrimp. 

Madame Abel Chatenay. Sal- 
mon-pink. 

Madame E. Herriot. Coral with 
orange, and red. 

Madame Jules Grolez. Bright 
pink. 

Madame Pernet Ducher. Yel- 
low. 

Magnolia. Lemon. Most ele- 
gant shape. 

Marguerite Montavon. Rose- 
pink. 

Miss Stewart Clark. A globe- 
shaped gold rose. 

Mrs. Aaron Ward. Ochre-yellow, 
with some rose flushings. 

Mrs. Arthur Munt. Ivory 
white. 

Mrs. E. C. Hill. White interior ; 
coral-pink exterior. 

Mrs. George Roupell. Cop- 
pery gold. 

Lady Inchiquin. Rose-and-cerise. 



Chameleon. Flame-cerise. 

Cherry Page. Gold and cerise. 

Countess of Lonsdale. Cad- 
mium-yellow. 

Mrs. J. Fred Hawkins. Sabnon- 
pink. 

Mrs. Peter Blair. Lemon- 
yellow. 

Princess Mary. Crimson-scar- 
let. Single. 

Lamia. Reddish orange. 

Sarah Bernhardt. Scarlet- 
crimson. Semi-double ; large. 

Donald McDonald. Orange- 
carmine. 

TipPERARY. Golden-yellow. 

Ulster Gem. Primrose. Single; 
large. 

Gorgeous. Orange and red-copper. 

William Cooper. A peculiarly 
fine shade of crimson. 

La*dy Pirrie. Yellow and copper- 
salmon. 

Los Angeles. Gold. 

British Queen. White. 

Margaret D. Hamill. Straw, 
flushed deep rose. 

IsoBEL. A rose of five petals. 
Bright carmine-red, with orange. 

Lieutenant ChaurI;. Crimson. 
A late bloomer. 

Ophelia. Salmon rose. 

Prince Charming. Reddish 
copper and gold. 

K. of K. Vermilion. Semi- 
double, with reddish wood. 
Extra lovely. 



Miss Willmott. Deep cream. 
These blossom with great freedom. 
Other excellent roses for gathering include : — 

Alexander Hill Gray. Tea. Gloire de Dijon. Tea. Buff- 
Yellow, yellow. 

Frau Karl Druschki. Hybrid Hugh Dickson. Hybrid Perpe- 

Perpetual. White. tual. Scarlet-crimson. 



74 



ROSE GARDENING 



Juliet. Hybrid Briar. Blend of 

orange and rosy red. 
Lady Penzance. Hybrid Sweet 

Briar. Copper and yellow. 
Lucy Bertram. Hybrid Sweet 

Briar. Deep rich crimson, with 

white centre. 
Golden Ophelia. Hybrid Tea. 

Clear gold. 
Miss Alice de Rothschild. Tea. 

Citron-yellow. 
Nita Weldon. Tea. Ivory 

white, with pink-tinted edges. 
Victor Hugo. Hybrid Perpetual. 

Crimson. Constant bloomer. 
Bouquet d'Or. Tea. Deep 

gold, shaded brown. 
Corallina. Tea. Coral-crimson. 
General Schablikine. Tea. 

Coppery red. 
Iceberg. Tea. Small, very charm- 
ing white flowers. 
Lady Hillingdon. Tea. 

Orange. 
Madame Constance Soupert. 

Tea. Yellow, shaded with peach 

and carmine. 

There are, of course, countless lovely roses that might be 
added to our list ; I can but suggest those that have given 
most pleasure to their cultivators among my acquaintances. 

For varieties of Ramblers, Wichuraianas, Chinas, Dwarf 
Polyanthas, and other classes of Rose, I must refer readers 
to the chapters dedicated to those separately. It will be 
but a choice in colours, as all are graceful, free blooming and 
attractive. 



Madame Hoste. Tea. Lemon. 
Papa Gontier. Tea. Rosy 

crimson. 
President Bouche. Hybrid 

Briar. Coral-crimson. 
W. C. Gaunt. Tea. Vermilion 

and maroon. 
President Parmentier. Hybrid 

Tea. Pink-apricot. 
Miss Connor. Hybrid Tea 

(1920). Canary-yellow. 
Hawlmark Crimson. Hybrid Tea 

(1920). Vivid maroon-crimson 

to scarlet. Semi-double. Very 

elegant. 
Independence Day. Hybrid 

Tea. Flame-and-gold. 
Mrs. H. D. Greene. Hybrid 

Tea. Red-bronze with flame and 

pink. Crimson foliage. 
Francklin. Hybrid Tea. Flesh 

and salmon, yellow flushed. 

Bronze foliage. 



CHAPTER IX 
BEDS OF ROSES 

' Said the Rose, " Of every drop 
That in my blooms doth stop 
Sweet perfume I distil." ' 

AN artist is needed to choose rose varieties for the beds 
of a rosery. However, all good gardeners are artists, 
so we must let ourselves follow our own light, not be frightened 
of assuming responsibility. Daily contact with flowers, daily 
living among beautiful floral scenes, tune the eye, heart, and 
soul, to the right aesthetic key, no matter how little the person 
may recognize himself as an artist. Indeed, genius is said 
to be invariably modest ; though this ought not to prevent 
genius from appreciating its own powers. Many a rough 
type of jobbing gardener will be found to have a really tender 
feeling for colour. Perhaps the rougher his personality the 
more likely it is that he has refused to follow the general 
lead when planting flowers ; such a man simply won't put 
red roses in a bed with carmine roses, if he doesn't happen 
to like the combination himself ; and the chances are that 
he will not like it. He may not be able to say why, but he 
will avoid the mistake. 

I heard of an old gardener, a mere garden labourer, who 
when told to bed out scarlet geraniums and magenta petunias 
along a border, in front of a wall climbed by several trees 
of the vermilion tawny rose, L' Ideal, replied, with some 
forcible expressions added : 

' Not me ... I bain't no murdrer.' 

75 



76 ROSE GARDENING 

Sometimes an employer says : 

' Never mind about the colours not going together. I 
want the garden to look bright.' 

Then the gardener sneers unseen or visibly, for he knows 
that colours do matter — dreadfully. 

Sometimes, of course, it is the gardener who denies this, 
and makes a brilliant hotchpotch as his best idea of what 
a garden should be. Then the employer is wrathful. 

I have offered these remarks just to argue that the artistic 
sense is not the property of any one class. A cottager's rosery 
may be perfect in blended hues, while a duke's, or some merely 
rich man's, is an offence to the refined eye. 

Happily for the timid folk who do not trust themselves, 
who doubt their possession of good taste, the rules for colour 
mingling are few and simple. 

Carmine, rose-pink, and maroon, must never be used with 
cerise, salmon, shrimp, orange-vermilion, or vermilion-scarlet. 

Apricot, and real orange, do not go well with clear yellow, 
for those are really the deeper shades of cream, whereas 
yellow, or gold, is the deeper shade of lemon. 

These are the only mixtures to always avoid. 

Minor truths are that white always improves carmine, 
maroon, and pinks of the real rose shades ; but cream, or 
apricot, or buff, would rather injure them. This is because 
white has a bluish tone that softens the effect of the bluish 
shades in those colours ; but the warm tone in cream, buff, 
and apricot, intensify those blue or violet shadings, making 
the rose-pink, maroon, or carmine roses look dull and heavy. 
Cream, buff, and apricot are perfect with coppery crimson, 
with scarlet, and orange-vermilion. White is seen at its 
very best by the real scarlet-crimson, such as the velvetiness 
of The Duke of Edinburgh, or the tulip vermilion of Dora 
van Tets. 

Beds can be of self colours, of assorted colours, or all of 
blended colours. They can be set singly in lawns, or gravel, 
or paved squares, or be grouped. When they are many, 
near together, the same care must be exercised in making 



BEDS OF ROSES ^^ 

neighbouring beds harmonious as is needed in associating 
roses harmoniously in one bed. 

Beds may contain only one type of rose each, or two types, 
or several : as when pillar ramblers occupy the centre. Hybrid 
Tea bushes come next, and the edging is of dwarf Polyanthas. 
These dwarf Polyanthas are very useful in bedding ; so too 
are bush Tea roses, kept fairly dwarf. 

Ordinary Teas can be set alternately with standard roses, 
or bushes of Hybrid Briars. It is an admirable idea to accom- 
pany Hybrid Perpetual standards with Teas as bushes, so 
that when the H.P.'s are not blooming the Teas will be. 

Raised beds show off dwarf roses famously, and are also 
good for pegged-down roses. The pegging-down system is 
often patronized in wind-swept gardens, as a safeguard to 
young shoots ; but, if that is necessary, it is better to peg 
down the roses on the level, where they will be still more 
sheltered. The primal reason for pegging-down is evidenced 
in a damp, heavy-soiled garden, that is not to be drained, 
either because draining is too costly or because the garden 
occupier meditates a change of residence. Roses can then 
be succeeded with in the worst bits of ground, when the raised 
beds are compounded of the best soil ingredients. 

Sunbaked flat gardens are not as suitable for roses as may 
at first thought be imagined, though they can be made to 
suit by very frequent mulchings of the surface with various 
materials. It is disastrous for the lower stems of roses to 
become over-dried. To mitigate the evil, pot-plants of 
bedding annuals and perennials can be sunk between the 
trees towards the middle of the beds, and a rockery edging, 
half a yard high, or a turved bank edge, will partly shade 
some portions of the outer rows of rose-trees. 

Another thing to do is to have other flowering plants 
sown, or planted, among the roses. Growers for exhibition 
would reject this plan, but, according to my experience, more 
trees suffer from sunbaked soil than from the company of 
suitably light-growing plants. First-class blooms can be 
gleaned from rose-trees growing out of such delicate charmers 



78 ROSE GARDENING 

as Iceland Poppies, Blue Flax, Red Flax, Viscarias, Venus's 
Navel-wort, Nemesia strumosa Suttoni, the smaller Quaking 
Grass, Virginian Stock, Gypsophila elegans. White, or Rosy 
Gem, Tom Thumb Nasturtiums, Linarias maroccana, or 
Lobelias. And it is not always easy to obtain magnificent 
blooms, in a tropical burst of summer, from trees in ground 
uncovered beneath midday's blazing heat. The whole secret 
is to have the plants at proper distances, either by thinning 
out, or judicious sowing or planting, and then prick the soil 
over frequently among them, not deeply enough to threaten 
the rose's fibrous roots, of course, but just to loosen the surface, 

A bed of standard roses and salpiglossis is one in which 
I delight ; though so tall, the annual is a light grower, and 
does no damage. Another idea is to sow the annual white 
Gypsophila elegans in the spaces of beds of gay roses. The 
effect of the ' mist flower ' will not be a white that can detract 
from the beauty of any pink rose, but rather more of a dreamy 
grey. 

If rose beds that are much exposed to heat are to be mulched, 
for the roots' protection, instead of grown over, dry, oven- 
baked leaf-mould is the best material ; moist leaf-mould 
may turn mouldy, and is usually teeming with insect life. 
Cocoa-nut-fibre refuse is less cool, and looks unnatural. 

Some quite tiny plants make thick mats of foliage, so are 
unsuitable, small though we count them, whereas taller, 
grassy-foliaged plants are innocuous. I do not like rose- 
beds carpeted by rock-cress, arabis, yellow alyssum, double 
red and white daisies, or violas, not if rose culture is the 
feature of the garden, or the particular part of the garden 
is the rosery. Annuals, or bedding tender perennials, and 
biennials, are best, for they are carted away when past 
their glory, so leave the soil vacant for weather to mellow, 
except in summer temperatures. 

Roses enjoy a light shading in the hot months. Of course 
we do not want to employ artificial shades in the ornamental 
garden, so some clever gardeners adopt different devices. 
I have seen white clematises grown up twelve feet high poles. 



BEDS OF ROSES 79 

and along wires joining them, and wires crossing the whole 
of the bed. Annual Convolvuluses, Cobaea scandens, Honey- 
suckles, Canary Creeper, would answer the same purpose, 
but the wires must be crossed so as to form an extremely 
wide mesh, and the climbers' growth be limited by thinnings 
out, or the shade will be excessive. Also it is necessary 
to arrange the wires so that no drip can fall on the trees, only 
upon the soil between them where extra moisture will do 
good service. 




Bamboo Poles and Wires, for Climbers, to Shade Roses. 

A deal of consideration should be given to the habit of 
growth of roses for bedding. All depends on the aim of the 
planter. If a prim effect is desired, only roses of first-class 
bedding qualities should be employed. If a wild garden sort of 
show is preferred, the trees may be of great diversity of heights 
and girths, simply grouped as we group perennials in the her- 
baceous border. Or of these beds on one grass-plot, the first 



8o ROSE GARDENING 

may be of huge bushes, the second of traiHng roses, the third 
of dwarf Teas, or Polyanthas. Or Briars, Mosses, and Chinas 
may be preferred. Standards, and Half-Standards, being 
obviously florist-made, are unsuited to any wild garden bit. 

Special combinations of roses with other important plants, 
or shrubs, are legitimate enough, only they belong by right 
to the mixed garden, not to the rose garden, and they are 
likely to depress the spirits of enthusiasts who regard the 
rose as entitled to chief respect. Undoubtedly Liliums, 
such as the Auratum, the Tiger Lily, the pink and red, finely 
spotted, Lilium speciosum and the elegant Lilium lanci- 
folium, the old Turk's Cap Lilies, too, make grand comrades 
for scarlet, crimson, pink, or white roses. They may be 
pot-sunk. If grown in the beds they must be given plenty 
of space, or the rose-trees will suffer. The same may be 
said, in warning, about Delphiniums, Michaelmas Daisies, 
Dahlias, Chrysanthemums, Pseonies, or any of the large- 
growing plants that are sometimes made to accompany roses. 

We can beautify the rose-beds more reasonably, if the roses 
are not enough for us, by planting Spring, Summer, Autumn, 
and Winter blooming bulbs among them — Snowdrops, Chion- 
odoxa, Scillas, Meadow-saffrons (or Colchicums), Autumn, 
and Winter Flowering Crocuses, the sky-blue December 
Iris Vartani, the slightly later Irises Alata, Histrio, Reticu- 
lata, and Persica. 

A wide bordering of Violas to the beds seldom does roses 
any harm, the middle spaces of ground being left free. Pinks 
may be cultivated as narrow edgings. I have known Car- 
nations and Roses grown alternately in beds, without either 
suffering ; the former were young plants, renewed each 
year, and none stood nearer than a foot to any tree. There 
are some roses, of peculiar, striking, or unusual colour, that 
make most eye-arresting beds. The vivid hue of Madame 
Norbert Levavasseur, which is called the Baby Crimson 
Rambler, the cerise of Reine Marie Henriette, the shrimp 
of the Lyon Rose, occur at once to mind. 

For a genuine scarlet splash I always recommend a bed 



BEDS OF ROSES 



8i 



of Dora van Tets. Other varieties may be better, but every 
rose lover is entitled to have fond fancies. 

Possibly the loveliest garden of beds of roses is the one 
in which they are huge round, square, oblong, diamond, 






Showing Part of a Grass Walk Rosery. 

crescent, heart, club ones, set along the middle of a very 
wide grass alley, that is flanked on either side by shrubberies 
— giant borders of Weigelas, Rhododendrons, Escallonias, 
Spiraeas, Deutzia, Veronicas, Cotoneasters, Berberises, Azaleas, 

' "X.^^7 /r'^y 'M/yy//J/.d^, /^.V^/^>^,^^ SHRUBS A^'/.fT'^' y^'/y' /'t''^'^////^^^7 : ^^-z'^- 
Showing Continuation of Grass Walk Rosery. 



Hydrangeas, Brooms, Corses, Andromedas, etc., towered 
behind by the taller tree Spiraeas, Deutzias, Lilacs, Laburnums, 
Mock Oranges, Snowball, and Snowberry trees, Forsythias, 
Buddleias, and Acacias. 

Here is a list of a few of the roses that are noted for being 
of splendid value in beds. 



82 



ROSE GARDENING 



Countess of Ilchester. Hybrid 
Tea. Carmine-pink. 

George C. Waud. Hybrid Tea. 
Deep salmony scarlet. With 
orange shadings. 

Mrs. Bullen. Pernetiana. 
Semi - double ; vivid scarlet- 
carmine on orange-yellow 
ground; produced in big 
clusters. 

Noblesse. Hybrid Tea. Apri- 
cot-primrose, with flush of pale 
pink. 

Prince of Wales. Hybrid Tea. 
Scarlet-cerise. 

Clarice Goodacre. Hybrid 
Tea. Buff-shaded white. 

Donald McDonald. Hybrid 
Tea. Orange-carmine. 

Madame Marcel Delaney. 
Hybrid Tea. Reddish apricot. 

Prince Charming. Hybrid Tea. 
Copper and gold. 

Red Cross. Hybrid Tea. Crim- 
son-scarlet. 

Tipperary. Hybrid Tea. Golden- 
yellow. 

Cheerful. Pernetiana. Pink- 
orange. Very large. Semi-double. 

Maman Cochet. Tea. Flesh- 
rose. 

White Maman Cochet. Tea. 
White. 

Isabella Sprunt. Tea. Deep 
canary-yellow. 

Caroline Testout. Hybrid Tea. 
Pink. 

Madame Abel Chatenay. Hy- 
brid Tea. Salmon-pink. 

Marquise Litta. Hybrid Tea. 
Carmine-rose, with Vermilion 
heart. Dwarf. 

Amateur Teisser. Hybrid Tea. 
Creamy yellow. 

Arthur R. Goodwin. Pernetiana. 



Coppery-red, with pink. Medium 
size. 

^TiNCELANTE. Hybrid Tea. Red- 
crimson, purplish-shaded. Very 
striking. 

Freda. Hybrid Tea. Old - rose 
colour. 

Henrietta. Hybrid Tea. 
Orange-crimson and salmon. 
Very free. 

Lady Ashtown. Hybrid Tea. 
Rose-pink. 

Lyon Rose. Hybrid Tea. 
Shrimp. 

Frau Karl Druschki. Hybrid 
Perpetual. White. 

C. E. Shean. Hybrid Tea. Clear 
pink. 

Golden Spray. Hybrid Tea. 
Gold, single, in arched sprays. 

Florinda Norman Thompson. 
Hybrid Tea (1920). Pink and 
Lemon. 

Charles K. Douglas. Hybrid 
Tea. Scarlet-crimson. 

Mrs. John R. Allan. Hybrid 
Tea. Bright pink. 

Majestic. Hybrid Tea. Car- 
mine-rose. 

Marquis of Salisbury. Hybrid 
Tea. Pale carmine. Very free. 

Mrs. Frank Workman. Hybrid 
Tea. A carmine pink rose of 
camellia shape. 

Mrs. George Norwood. Hybrid 
Tea. Rich pink. 

Mrs. Mona Hunting. Hybrid 
Tea. Intensely double medium- 
sized flowers of fawn-yellow. 

Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt. 
Blush, with deeper centre. Large 
blooms. 

Mrs. Wallace H. Rowe. Hy- 
brid Tea. A rare shade — peach- 
pink, nearly mauve. 



BEDS OF ROSES 



83 



Mrs. Wakefield Christie- 
Miller. Hybrid Tea. Ivory 
blush inside, rose-vermilion 
outside. Blooms right into 
Winter. Moderately tall only. 

Ophelia. Hybrid Tea. Salmon- 
rose. 

Rayon D'Or. Pernetiana. A 
gold rose, buds streaked with 
red, and shaded with orange. 
Dark glossy foliage. Very vig- 
orous. 

Robin Hood. Hybrid Tea. 
Rosy scarlet. 

Verna Mackay. Hybrid Tea. 
Sulphur-buff, turning to lemon. 
Very free. 

William Cooper. Hybrid Tea. 
Rich carmine-red, known as 
lake. Very free. 

Baronne de Maynard. Hybrid 
Perpetual. White, only medium 
size, but one of the very freest 
bloomers. 

Hugh Dickson. Hybrid Perpet- 
ual. Scarlet-crimson. Constant 
bloomer. 

Captain Hayward. Hybrid 
Perpetual. Scarlet-crimson. 

Juliet. Hybrid Briar. Gold, 
rosy red, and deep rose. 

Susan Marie Rodocanachi. 
Hybrid Perpetual. Glowing 
rose. 

Mrs. John Laing. Hybrid Per- 
petual. Soft pink. Good au- 
tumnal. 

Baroness Rothschild. Hybrid 
Perpetual. Constant bloomer. 
Pale pink. 

Rosa Moschata Alba. The 
white Musk Rose. 

Lady Curzon. A decorative 
Rose. Pale pink, single. 



Hugonis. a nother decorative 
Rose. Yellow. Very early. 

Catherine Seaton. Hybrid 
Sweet Briar. Soft pink. 

Conrad F. Meyer. Rugosa. 
Silvery rose. 

Nova Zembla. Rugosa. Pure 
white. 

Refulgence. Hybrid Sweet 
Briar. Brilliant scarlet ; semi- 
double. 

Padr^. Hybrid Tea. Coppery 
scarlet, flushed yellow. 

Mrs. Wemyss Quin. Hybrid 
Tea. Yellow. 

Mrs. Redford. Hybrid Tea. 
Apricot-orange. 

President Bouche. Hybrid 
Briar. Coral-crimson. 

Queen of Colours. Hybrid 
Tea. Bright pink. 

Lieutenant Chaure. Hybrid 
Tea. Crimson. 

Queen Mary. Hybrid Tea. 
Lemon chrome. 

Madame S. Weber. Hybrid Tea. 
Salmon-pink. 

Red Letter Day. Hybrid Tea. 
Orange-crimson-scarlet. 

Duchess OF Wellington. Hybrid 
Tea. Deep gold. 

Lamia. Hybrid Tea. Red- 
orange. 

Emma Wright. Hybrid Tea. 
Pure orange. 

Christine. Hybrid Tea. Gold. 

Mermaid. Hybrid Tea. Orange- 
apricot. 

John Davison. Hybrid Tea. 
Deep velvety crimson. 

Mrs. Elisha Hicks. Hybrid 
Tea. Palest pink, with pale 
green foliage. Erect growth, 



CHAPTER X 
STANDARD ROSES 

' O royal Rose ! the Roman dress 'd 
His feast with thee ; thy petals pressed 
Augustan brows ; thine odour fine, 
Mixed with the three-times-mingled Wine, 
Lent the long Thracian draught its zest. 

What marvel then, if host and guest 
By Song, by Joy, by Thee caressed, 
Half trembled on the half-divine, 
O Royal Rose.' 

Austin Dobson. 

UNDOUBTEDLY the Rose, born as the twining wild 
rose, or dog rose, was never intended to become a 
standard. But that does not make standards unattractive, 
or prove that garden-owners who love standards are Goths 
and barbarians. A diamond is scarcely beautiful until it is 
cut ; a slab of marble needs polishing, or is of greater artistic 
value when carved than when in its native state, or a mere 
prepared block. 

The excuse for making roses into standards is the same as 
the excuse for putting eggs into puddings ; we like them 
that way for a change. 

A garden all of standards might be a lovely garden, yet 
there would be more pleasure in visiting the novelty than in 
living with it. The reason for making standards is to procure 
one more pretty effect, as a variation, change of form, of 
height, of effect generally, as pleasing to the eye. Then, the 
bare straight stem is actually more pleasing than the rough, 
curving, bumpy stem of an old dwarf-trained rose that has 
had its side branches chopped off as wood has died. And the 

84 



STANDARD ROSES 



85 



bare pole of a standard surmounted by a fine head, has a 
regal, crown-like suggestion about it. Again, the pole, when 
hidden among dwarf roses in a bed, enables the head to supply 
far more upper foliage and flower in that bed than could be 




/\ B^D of l\0S^S To roi\r[ 
O Sf/\r^D/\i\D5 

• BUSIES 

• Dv^''\\\r PoLY^^Jt^t^S 

gained by packing dwarfs too tightly ; the result being a mount 
of leaf and bloom. By mingling standards, half-standards, 
and bushes in bed, or border, pyramidal displays, or sloped 
stretches are built, that show off rose colour to great advant- 
age. Standards set formally, in little beds round the edge 
of a lawn, are suited by their environment. Standards edging 
a piece of grass not cut, except for hay, yet part of the garden, 
would be ridiculous. When a Too-Too-Utter-Artistic-Person 



86 ROSE GARDENING 

says to me : ' You ought to know better than to reduce your 
rose-trees to a hideous spherical broomhead on a too thin 
stick ' ; I answer : ' Then don't mow your lawn, or use weed- 
killer for your walks. Let everything everywhere grow into 
a buoyant wilderness.' 

Standard trees have their own charm. Do not let us quarrel 
with it because it is not some altogether different charm. 
There is room for all. I have never been able to appreciate 
half-standards, except for helping in building up rose-masses ; 
but that is merely a personal idiosyncracy, such as we all 
must plead guilty to on one subject or another. There is 
an idea that standard roses are likely to fail. Well, the head, 
that is to say the portion that is rose, not briar stock, the 
product of briar budding, is apt to be blown out by a violent 
gale. But that will not happen if the stake that supports 
a tree goes up high enough for the thickest portion of the rose 
to be tied to it. In cold districts a few handfuls of straw, 
or dry bracken-fern, woven among the branches, drawn a 
little over the junction of rose and briar, and secured in place 
by a web-like criss-crossing of rafha, or string, will safeguard 
a tree against Winter's frosts and snow, and Spring's most 
cutting east winds. 

On damp soil, rose trees that are standards keep in better 
health than do bushes that are closer to the wet earth. 

Perhaps standards were first used round lawns on account 
of their not being as liable to injury from balls — croquet and 
cricket balls especially. Even tennis balls that speed beyond 
proper boundary lines, often dash into any dwarf rose bushes, 
breaking off shoots, smashing promising sprays, scattering 
petals. It is rare for a tennis ball to drop into a standard rose 
head so as to damage it. Then, the human lawn-mower 
has his task simplified if the roses are standards, instead of 
bushes that are sure to project half over verges. 

It is also true that standards suffer less from being grown 
round by great quantities of bedding plants. 

Long rows of standards give exquisite effects in perspective ; 
double rows seem to converge to a mere point in the distance. 



STANDARD ROSES 



87 



Of the value of standards for giving colour on a higher level 
than that of bushes and ordinary flowering plants of beds 
and borders, we need no proof beyond our own memories. 




srETn- 



sr\\^ 



A Properly Staked Standard Rose. 



88 ROSE GARDENING 

Believe me, an obviously artificial house, and made garden, 
is well suited by artificially trained roses. Railings, conser- 
vatories, verandahs, pergolas, terraces, plants set at even 
distances, and grouped together with design, regulated spaces 
between beds and borders-, and grass that is kept neat, are 
not imitations of Nature, nor examples of allowing Nature to 
do what she will. So our roses need not grow as they choose. 

Really the double rose is itself an artificial product. And 
as for the highly cultivated critics of artificial gardens, are 
they not strikingly artificial products themselves ? Let them 
realize that, as we do not ask them to return to the primitive 
uses of woad, or to banish spoons and forks from their tables, 
we may surely declare our own right to cultivate roses in a 
fashion that tones well with the modern world we inhabit. 

An authority, in 1843, gave the following counsels : 

' On Standard Roses. 

' The great mistake which people make in the pruning of 
these beautiful subjects is, that they cut back the very first 
limbs to one or two eyes, however long they may have grown, 
and thereby keep the head small and pimping for years, where- 
as the first consideration ought to be to obtain something 
like proportion in the head. How frequently do we see stan- 
dards of five feet in height, with heads not larger than a 
respectable house-mop. . . . The head of a rose-tree ought 
to be as large through as the stem is long from the ground 
to the lower branches.' 

Valuable, too, is the same author's advice on how to per- 
suade a head to grow symmetrically from the start. 

' As there will be five or six branches, such of these as will 
grow straight away from the centre, to form a circular head, 
may be left on, while those pointing upwards should be short- 
ened. Thusly, something like three or four limbs, pointing 
different ways, may be secured, but weakly ones should be 
cut right away. Those limbs that are left will not form a 
proper head unaided, therefore should be pruned back to three 



STANDARD ROSES 89 

or four eyes, the end eyes to be left, being under ones, will 
grow downwards, elegantly branching.' 

Then there are Weeping Standards. These may be easily 
formed by letting the long branches grow wild all summer, 
then bending them out, on all sides, and tying them to stakes 
set at intervals round the tree. For next season, take away 
the stakes, for the branches should be strong enough to do 
with only a little skilful invisible tying to the main stem — 
and remove overcrowding inner shoots, of course. To begin 
to make a Weeping Standard, from the very first, out of an 
ordinary standard, prune hard the first March, then let Nature 
do the rest, except for the restriction of the number of inner 
branches, and the tying. 

It surprises many persons to learn that it is possible to 
have Weeping Standards twelve feet tall, trees, in fact, like 
Weeping Willows, and Ashes. Of their loveliness there is no 
question. Rambler, Wichuraiana, Climbing Polyantha, and 
Ayrshire Roses make splendid Weeping Standards. So do 
Hybrid Tea and Tea Climbers. It is really invidious to men- 
tion any roses that are specially charming for this treatment, 
but some that soon grow into handsome specimens are Bardou 
Job, W. A. Richardson, American Rambler, Hiawatha, The 
Dawson Rambler, Felicite Perpetue, Aglaia, the Yellow 
Rambler, and Reine Olga de Wurtemburg. 



CHAPTER XI 
PILLAR ROSES 

' When from the portals of her paradise. 
Sweet Eve went forth, an exile with sad heart, 
She lingered at the thrice-barred gate, in tears. 
And to the guardian of that Eden fair, 
As on her cheek there came and went the rose. 
She, weeping, mourned the harshness of her fate. 

" O Angel," cried she, " bitter is the fate 
That drives me from this fairest paradise, 
And bids me wear life's rue, and not its rose ! 
Give me one flower to lay upon my heart 
Before I wander through far lands less fair. 
And drown all visions of my past in tears." 

Within the angel's breast compassion rose 
At sight of her sad face and falling tears. 
The while her beauty touched his tender heart ; 
And, knowing well the misery of her fate. 
He gave the flower, a rose of paradise. 
Because she was so very young and fair.' 

Florence M. Byrne. 

WE have already mused a good deal on climbing roses, 
but the subject of Pillar Roses deserves a few 
thoughts all to itself. 

Where should pillars be set up ? No nutshell answer is 
possible. Some gardens are too fiat, and pillars are inexpen- 
sive to erect, and will cure the scene much sooner than forest 
trees could grow up to do. 

Pillars are a mode of gaining prodigal quantities of blossom, 
beyond the supplies that can be gleaned from standards or 
bushes. 

90 



PILLAR ROSES 91 

Pillars, like slender tall women, please by their graceful 
height ; and, when perfectly clad, show off their clothing as 
do those elegantly formed women. 

Pillars can be seen from afar, whereas hedges, shrubberies, 
etc., intercept the long view of beds and borders of bush roses. 

Pillars enable us to patronize all the climbing roses that 
have no dwarf counterparts, and also the climbing varieties 
of many dwarf roses that our skilled growers have raised for 
us — that are often superior to their dwarf parents in vigour 
and floweriness. 

The walls and fences of a small garden are soon covered ; 
then, though pergolas and arches might take up too much 
room, create too much shade, cause awkward drip, bountiful 
climbers can always be held up by pillars. 

A very original garden rosery can be wrought by dotting a 
lawn all over with pillar roses. 

The following remarks were once made by the then cele- 
brated Mr. Godwin, of Market Drayton : 

' No object can be more attractive, or form a finer feature 
in a flower garden, or a well-kept lawn, than a pillary of Roses 
judiciously introduced. From the middle of November, 
until Christmas, I find the best time to plant these and all 
other kinds of hardy garden roses, where the soil is not too 
wet, or situation too exposed. Where, however, the latter 
is the case, and the soil of a retentive nature, the better time 
to plant them will be found the middle of April, and not 
February as is generally recommended, as I have discovered 
from many years' observation, that they generally suffer more 
during the month of March than from the combined effects of 
the preceding winter. They also do much better when planted 
singly to a pillar, than introducing two or more varieties. 
It will be found exceedingly difficult in that case to get them 
to assimilate in growth so as to prevent one from destroying, 
or materially injuring, the other.' 

It is true that when two climbing roses are given the same 
pillar, or side of an arch, it usually comes to be a question of 
the survival of the fittest. 



92 



ROSE GARDENING 



How high should pillars be ? The higher the house they 
are near, the higher the pillars, arches, pergolas, that may 
legitimately be placed within view from it. Twelve to eighteen 







,/■'(«■ /"■• w.^ 



Rose Pillars in House-Wall Angle. 



feet, eight to twelve feet, six to eight feet, are good heights 
for various uses. For my own taste I would never tolerate 
a pillar lower than six feet. Pillars may be of many a sub- 
stance. Old gas-piping, painted white, grey, green, or brown, 
answers well. Natural birch, or ash, are always beautiful. 
Hop-poles are cheap and strong. The four-square posts sold 



PILLAR ROSES 93 

for washing-line props have many merits. Young fir trunks, 
though picturesque, do not suit roses, for they are resinous and 
rough. 

A modern villa, with carved iron gates and verandah sup- 
ports, is suited by painted iron pillars. A rustic cottage is 
harmonized with by rustic pole pillars, A Tudor or Ehza- 
bethan house needs hidden supports for the climbing roses ; 
the arches and pillars should look to have been in existence 
long enough to have overgrown every foundation ; this is 
not difficult to contrive, for if the pillars, or poles, are of some 
pliant wood, that of the Mountain Ash, for instance, and are 
used in the green state, the rose growth, of mature new climb- 
ers, will be scarcely distinguishable, and soon present a picture 
of pillars of rose alone. Squarish solid wooden pillars are 
not out of place with any garden in which wooden trellis-work 
abounds. 

Poles may be slender or broad ; the slim ones are often set 
in circles or squares, each a foot, or couple of feet, from its 
neighbour. Solid pillars, it may be mentioned, are of real 
cultural service in cold windy places. 

If it is agreed that standards give fine perspective lines 
when planted in lengthy rows, so as to face one another, or 
in avenue fashion, it will be realized that yet grander lines 
for vision are afforded by pillars set in long rows. 

Mr. Godwin advised : 

' The ground should be well trenched, and made particu- 
larly rich by the addition of a thorough dressing of well-rotted 
manure. We have pillar roses with us varying in height from 
six to twenty feet, simply supported by larch poles, from 
fifteen to twenty-three feet long, which, being previously 
subjected to the action of fire for about three feet at the 
bottom of each, will stand a number of years without further 
trouble than the annual dressings of the roses.' 

Most of the garden-owner's troubles with blown-down 
arches and pillars would not occur if supports were bought 
very lofty, then charred for three feet up. 

Climbing rose varieties should be chosen carefully, the 



94 



ROSE GARDENING 



most rampant for the highest work, the lesser climbers for 
the lowest. Those classed as semi-climbers will reach the 
top of a six-foot pillar. 

Climbers can be trained straight up, or wound round and 
round a pillar, or group of pillars. 

I give a list, necessarily a very inadequate one, of climbing 
roses of special merit for pillars. 



AiMi;E ViBERT. Noisette. Pure 
white. 

Alistair Stella Gray. Noi- 
sette. Buff-yellow. 

Antoinette Massard. Noisette. 
C ar mine -vermilion. Semi- 
double. 

Billiard et Barre. Tea. Gold. 
Large flowering. 

Climbing Captain Christy. Hy- 
brid Tea. Pale pink ; very fine, 
but only a summer bloomer. 

Climbing Captain Hayward. 
Hybrid Perpetual. Crimson. 

Climbing Caroline Testout. 
Hybrid Tea. Pink. Large. 

Climbing Catherine Mermet. 
Tea. Flesh-pink. 

Climbing Cramoisie. China. 
Double little flowers of velvety 
crimson. Continuous blooming, 
and hardy. 

Climbing Cumberland Belle. 
Moss. Pink. 

Climbing Devoniensis. Tea. 
For south walls. Creamy blush. 

Climbing Lady Ashtown. Hy- 
bridTea. Pink. One of the best. 



Climbing Liberty. Hybrid Tea. 
Scarlet-crimson. 

Climbing Mrs. W. J. Grant. 
Hybrid Tea. Bright rose. 
Large blooming. 

Longworth Rambler. Noisette. 
Light crimson ; in sprays. 

Madame Isaac Perri^ire. Bour- 
bon. Carmine. Very full, and 
large. 

Madame Plantier. Bourbon. 
White, medium size, a great 
grower, double, and continuous 
blooming. 

Climbing Paul Lede. Hybrid 
Tea. Salmon flesh. 

William Allen Richardson. 
Noisette. Apricot. 

Climbing Irish Fireflame. Hy- 
brid Tea. Orange, splashed and 
flushed with carmine. 

CoLCESTRiA. Hybrid Tea. Satin 
rose. Perfumed. 

Climbing Chatenay. Hybrid 
Tea. A vigorous climbing ver- 
sion. 

Ards Rover. Hybrid Perpetual. 
Deep crimson. Constant. 



The above may all be reckoned very tall. Liberty is not 
as sure to mount high as are the rest, but generally does so 
in good soil. 

For lower pillars I can recommend : 



PILLAR ROSES 



95 



L'loiiAL. Noisette. Yellow, 
shaded with metallic red. 

ZfPHYRiNE Drouhin. Briar. 

Bright pink. The thornless rose. 
Constant. 

NoELLA Nabonnand. Hybrid 
Tea. Enormous velvety crim- 
son, loose flowers. 

Red Admiral. Hybrid Tea, 
Cerise-red, in masses. 

Queen Alexandra. Hybrid Tea. 
Large single flowers of primrose 
flushed with salmon. 



Frau Karl Druschki. Hybrid 
Perpetual. White. 

Florence Haswell Veitch. 
Hybrid Tea. Scarlet, crimson- 
shaded. 

GusTAVE RfeGis. Hybrid Tea. 
Canary yellow. Semi-double. 

Hugh Dickson. Hybrid Per- 
petual. Scarlet-crimson. 

Meg Merrilees. Hybrid Briar. 
Bright crimson. 

J.B.Clark. Hybrid Tea. Scar- 
let-crimson, maroon shaded. 



The last-named rose will grow tall, if allowed, but makes 
an admirable six-foot pillar variety if cut almost down each 
autumn. 



CHAPTER XII 
PERNETIANA ROSES 

' Rose, with a hundred leaves, a thousand scents, in one.' 

Anon. 

MANY people do not understand what a Pernetiana rose 
really is, and could not describe it in answer to any 
rose-grower's catechism. 

Well, in 1900, I believe, or thereabouts, Messrs. Pernet 
Ducher, the famous rose-breeders, introduced a very lovely 
new rose that they named Soleil d'Or, having obtained it by 
crossing the familiar Persian Yellow, or Austrian Briar, with 
some other rose. 

Instead of having gained a single or semi-double rose, this 
proved really double, a brilliant gold, with red streaked buds, 
and quite hardy. Of course Soleil d'Or has demerits, though 
it seems mean to notice flaws in a flower nearly perfect. The 
blooms are flat, not pointed, and have a way of splitting into 
three sections, or making a three-cornered heart, when fully 
expanded, as we have all observed that the good old Gloire 
de Dijon is fond of doing. But the blossoms last extra long, 
and are very sweet. Also the long soft tawny red spines of 
the stem add to the beauty. 

Since then Soleil d'Or has been used as one parent for innu- 
merable roses ; we owe the Lyon Rose to it, to begin with. 

Generally speaking, Pernetiana roses are splendid for the 
garden, and for cutting, grow cleanly, look fresh, handsome, 
and happy, yield well, mostly giving a flower for every shoot, 
and do not mildew. 

There is some regrettable confusion about the classification 
of these hybrid roses, many getting called after their other 

96 




OPHELIA {Pale Pink) 



MADAME S^GOND WEBER .Rose Pink) 



PERNETIANA ROSES 



97 



parent, not the Pernetiana side of the family. This may be 
correct for those that show strong Tea, Hybrid Tea, or other 
characteristics than Pernetiana ones, but, unluckily, we may 
find the same rose catalogued as a Pernetiana by one firm. 




A Round Rosery, with Grass. 

written about as a Pernetiana by one authority, and as a Hybrid 
Tea by others. 

A long sunny border, down one side of a lawn, given up to 
Pernetiana Hybrids, is a very magnificent garden feature, 
and may be had in towns and by the sea, as well as by country 
dwellers. Grouped beds, forming a special Pernetiana Rosery, 
can be as cordially recommended. The open ground is best ; 
sunshine is, of course, needed. 

G 



98 



ROSE GARDENING 



<P r^^^ 



r<-^/;^^'.' 







\ //a '/'/, ^ , //, . ^ ,^'^0 S E HEDGE ,^:-^ ^. / '4 . 



A Paved Rosery. 

Here is a list of some of the Pernetiana roses, in addition 
to those ahready mentioned. 

Les Rosati. Carmine, on yellow, 
with crimped cerise edge. 

Beaute de Lyon. Coral red, 
shading to yellow. Globular. 

Mrs. C. V. Haworth. Cinnamon 
apricot. 

Severine. Coral red. 

JoHANNiSFEUER. Gold, edged 
with crimson-scarlet. Medium 
size, semi-double. 

Jacques Vincent. Yellow and 
coral. 



Mrs. a. R. Waddell. Semi- 
double. Rose, salmon, scarlet. 

Juliet. Old gold outside, centre 
cerise red, with amber ground, 
and often vermilion and carmine 
streaks. 

Arthur C. R. Goodwin. Moder- 
ately double, medium size, cop- 
per, orange, vermilion, fading to 
salmon. Red foliage that be- 
comes gay green. 

Constance. Yellow. 



PERNETIANA ROSES 



99 



J. F. Barry. Canary yellow. 
Louise Catherine Breslau. 

Coral red and gold. 
Madame E. Herriot [The Daily 

Mail Rose). Tomato red, rosy 

scarlet, and yellow. 
Los Angeles. Flame pink, 

shaded gold at base of petals. 
Muriel Dickson. Red, copper, 

cerise. 
Willowmere. Shrimp, yellow, 

carmine. 
Miss May Marriot. Amber. 
Emma Wright. Orange. Rather 

floppy in bloom, but brilliant, 

strong, and very fragrant. 
Christine. Deep gold. 
Tim Page. Yellow, streaked with 

scarlet. 
Glowworm. Orange scarlet. 
Cheerful. Pink. Semi -double. 

Very large. 



Golden Emblem. Golden yellow. 
Marechal Niel colour, but buds 
streaked with scarlet. 

President B o u c h e. Cerise- 
shrimp. 

Mrs. Bullen. Scarlet-carmine, 
on yellow ground. A cluster 
rose. Semi-double. 

Constance Casson. Carmine, 
apricot and yellow veined. Large, 
fine glossy foliage. Mildew re- 
sisting. 

Jean C. N. Forestier (1920). 
Carmine, lake and orange. 

Souvenir de George Beckwith 
(1920). Shrimp pink and orange. 

Souvenir de Charles Laem- 
MEL (1920). Golden yellow, 
flushed rose. 

Mrs. Farmer. Apricot yellow, 
with red apricot reverse. 

Vesta. Vieux rose. 



CHAPTER XIII 
DWARF POLYANTHA ROSES 

' The sheath-enfolded fans of rosy bushes.' 

WHOSOEVER wishes for a blaze of colour, or a breadth 
of snow-white, should fill beds and borders with 
Dwarf Polyantha roses. Their charm is irresistible. Men 
who have despised them, because of the smallness of their 
bloom, become converted to them, nay, devoted to the hobby 
of growing them. 

What can be said, logically, against little bushes literally 
smothered in flower from the first week of June to the middle 
of December, offering cut-and-come-again supplies ? — Nothing, 
except by such persons as would growl at a viola for not being 
a magnolia, or a cauliflower for having no scent. 

I have said that roses are the most economical and simplest 
of bed and border ornaments, but the Dwarf Polyantha roses 
are of champion merit in both these ways. Put them in, 
keep them tidy, and they will not disappoint. 

The Baby Crimson Rambler, or Madame Norbert Leva- 
vasseur, as it is named, had the reputation of being earlier than 
Dwarf Polyanthas, but is not earlier with me, being eclipsed 
in that respect by the Polyantha Mignonette, a wild-rose 
pink. Jessie is earliest with many growers. Of course the 
earliness, and the lateness, of varieties depends to a consider- 
able extent on the positions they occupy. A rose in full sun- 
shine and wind does not bloom as soon as a rose in full sun- 
shine where draughts are shut off, and there are near walls 
to radiate heat. Since a peach ripens the side of its fruit 
finely that is facing north, by being turned towards the south 

100 



DWARF POLYANTHA ROSES 



lOI 



wall against which the tree is trained, and feeling the wall's 
radiance, it is easy to understand that a rose-bud, or a bunch 
of rose-buds, similarly basking, will open early. 

Prune, that is to say cut into shape, and thin out Dwarf 
Polyantha roses at the end of March ; go over them twice more 
before May, just to rid them of any bits of wood that have 
died back, and to make sure that each little branch has been 
tipped ; then await the masses. After the trees have flowered 



B 


C 


B 


C 


^S 


c 


B 


^^^^^^^^^ 


B 


c 



Bed of Dwarf Polyantha Roses, with Rockery Centre. 

A. Perle d'Or. BufE-yellow. 

B. Jessie. Cerise. 

C. Schneewittchen. Cream-white. 

well all June I cut them again, to remove all the shoots that 
have borne blossoms and that do not happen to have been 
gathered. After that they start making new blossom shoots. 
When another blossoming is over I cut them again. Some- 
times this happens many times during a summer, right up 
to the end of September. I feed them well, with Fertilizer, 
guano, soot, liquid manures, after giving a March mulch of 
mixed farmyard manure, — old, of course. They never disap- 
point my expectations, and are sure to be pretty and gay 
nearly up to Christmas. 



102 



ROSE GARDENING 



It would be an excellent plan to have a plantation of the 
little bushes to pop giant glass cloches over, at the beginning 
of November, and, covering these with sacks at night, see if 
the flower yield cannot be kept up in spite of frosts. 

All Dwarf Polyantha roses are worth growing, but I give 
a list of some of representative colours, just for the guidance 
of new cultivators who cannot afford to order all at once ! 



Ellen Poulson. Cherry-rose and 

cream. 
Rosalind. Bright pink. 
Anna Marie de Montravel. 

Pure white. 
Gloire des Polyanthas. Bright 

rose, with white centre. 
George Elger. Coppery yellow. 
Jessie. Cerise, or cherry. 
Phyllis. Carmine pink. 
Mrs. W. Cutbush. Bright pink. 
Mignonette. Pale pink. 
Leonie Lamesch. Tomato red, 

with gold in centre. 

A lovely border to a lawn can be made by planting first 
a Dwarf Polyantha rose on the level, then one two feet behind, 
and three feet further on, upon a hillock, of grass or rockery, 
and continuing to alternate varieties thus for the length 
required. 



Madame Jules Gouchault. 

Vermilion, shaded with orange, 

fading to cherry-rose. 
Gloire d'Orleans. Deep red. 
Cecile Brunner. Peach, shaded 

with yellow. 
AscHENBRODEL. Peach and 

orange, shaded with salmon. 
Perle d'Or. Buff-yellow. 
Canarienvogel. Yellow, 

streaked with orange, rose and 

purple. 
Schneewittchen. Cream-white. 




^<^ 



/. .j,^.«Ji,.i.".>- 



fS- 



CJl^ASS MOUND W, 



•Vosi- 



An Uncommon Border for Dwarf Polyantha Roses. 



Many of these little roses are perfumed, notably Aschen- 
brodel, Ellen Poulson, cherry-rose, Eugenie Lamesch, orange 
yellow, Jean d'Arc, white, and Merveille des Polyanthas, 
white. 



CHAPTER XIV 
BRIAR ROSES 

' Here roses sweet their blushing charms disclose. 
Red and white roses, Zephyr swayed.' 

J. H. A. Hicks. 

EVERY Briar Rose is not a Sweet-Briar. That is the 
first fact to remember. As long ago as 1838 the follow- 
ing remarks were made upon the subject : 

• * The Eglantine, or Common Sweet-Briar Rose [Rosa rubi- 
ginosa), has been cultivated more for the fragrance of its leaves 
than for its flowers, but, by the recent discoveries in crossing, 
and the activity of cultivators, there have been numerous 
varieties produced whose flowers are of good character, and 
numerous, as many sometimes as forty in a bunch, though 
they naturally grow only in threes in the wild state. There 
is also a wild variety, if not a species {Rosa inodora Agardh), 
which can scarcely be distinguished except from the leaves 
being scentless.' 

The garden-owner who wants scented Briar Roses should 
mention so when writing to a rose-seller. 

The same author described Briar Roses as ' rather of tall 
growth, and when wild grow naturally generally among other 
shrubs and trees in copses and the like, striking their roots 
deep into the soil, and preferring shade rather than too much 
sun.' 

The soil best adapted for them, according to the celebrated 
Paxton, is ' a deep rich loamy soil, and if somewhat strong 
it will be so much the better ; for though as they strike their 
roots deep, it might be inferred that they would answer in 
deep sandy soil however dry, this is not found to be the case. 

103 



104 ROSE GARDENING 

Shade is more or less indispensable, together with some mulch- 
ing round the roots. When the Sweet-Briar is grown as a 
hedge it is usual to cut it like privet and hawthorn with the 
shears, but it is, notwithstanding, shy of sending out shoots, 
and when thus treated rarely flowers ; whereas the white, 
or blush, roses that stand in old farm gardens untouched for 
years by the pruning knife, for the most part bloom profusely. 
From these two facts it may be inferred that the less pruning 
given to roses of this sort, the better.' 

It is true that Japanese Briar Roses should be tipped only, 
and relieved of dead wood, in March. 

A writer in 1864 noted the Austrian Briar's dislike to smoke, 
to pruning with a knife, and to being budded on other stocks, 
' and its liking for plenty of liberty for its branches to ramble." 

We may make hedges of Briar, and Hybrid Briar Roses, and 
grow them on trellises and fences, but their real place is, I 
think, the semi-wild garden, the shrubbed glades, or among 
the large boulders of rock-gardens. Still, the Hybrid Sweet- 
Briars are charming filling beds, or as tall items at the back 
of the mixed border. 

They have been vastly improved ; their blooms are large, 
in many examples, and new colours have been introduced of 
late years. 

I hope this list will help amateur gardeners to choose with- 
out seeing. 

Amy Robsart. Deep rose. Jeanie Deans. Semi-double. 

Anne of Gierestein. Dark Scarlet-crimson. 

crimson. Julia Mannering. Pale pink. 

Canary Bird. Yellow, tinted Extra scented. 

with crimson. Lady Penzance. Copper with 

Catherine Seyton. Rosy pink. yellow. 

Edith Bellenden. Pale rose. Lord Penzance. Buff, shaded 

Flora McIvor. White, flushed with clear green. 

with rose. Lucy Bertram. Deep crimson, 

Green Mantle. Pink, with with white centre. 

white centre. Meg Merrilees. Glowing crim- 

Ibis. Double rose. son. 

Janet's Pride. Semi-double, Minna. Rose pink. Double. 

white, striped with carmine. Extra sweet. 



BRIAR ROSES 105 

Refulgence. Semi -double. Lucy Ashton. White, pink 

Scarlet. edged. 

Rose Bradwardine. Clear rose. Raymond H. Austrian Briar. 
Brenda. Peach-blossom colour. Orange, carmine - flushed, on 

peach. 

The Japanese Briar Roses {Rosa riigosa) grow into large 
shrubby trees unless trained out against espaliers, walls, 
fences, trellises, etc., or deprived of their side growth to keep 
them in shape for pillar forming. They are useful for creating 
screens anywhere ; if set three feet apart only, at first, alter- 
nate trees can be removed when they become overcrowded, 
preferably when the branches interlace at all. As lawn speci- 
mens, too, they are of good service, especially in town and 
seaside gardens, it being no small part of their charm that they 
carry gloriously coloured fruits in profusion, that hang till 
the close of the year, and take on autumn tints of amber, 
russet, and red. They are not sweet-briar scented. 

All are of value, but attention may be drawn to a few of the 
best. 

Conrad F. Meyer. Silvery rose. Mrs. Anthony Waterer. 
Nova Zembla. White. Scented. Bright crimson, semi-double. 

Blanc Double de Combert. Rose A Parfum de l'Hay. 

Double white. Cherry-carmine. Hay-scented. 

Daniel Lesueur. Cream-yellow, Rugosa Alba. White. Single. 

copper and pink. Comte de Epremesnil. Magen- 
DoLLY Varden. Apricot pink. ta. Very sweet. 

Madame Georges Bruant. Evening. Semi-double, rose. 

Semi-dottble, white. Maid of the Mill. Carmine. 
Madame Jules Potin. Rose Small-flowering, but very gay. 

pink. Cup-shaped. Yesoensis. Pink. 

The fruits are edible, and make excellent jam ; for which 
purpose they should be gathered in the golden stage, being 
over-ripe, and tasteless, if left till they are red. 

Then we may have the Scotch Briar, or Burnet Rose {Rosa 
spinosissima) , pure white, intensely double, and as intensely 
prickly, but of admirable service for table decoration, being 
exceptionally long-lasting. I like to plant this little rose as 
Box is planted, for edgings round giant beds, also to have 



io6 ROSE GARDENING 

them among the biggest boulders of the rock-garden, where 
they can sprawl in the way they love. 

All the Briar Roses may be the consolation of rose lovers 
who have shady, semi-shady, enclosed, or sticky-soil 
gardens, for they flourish almost under any circumstances, 
except Lord and Lady Penzance, and the Austrian Briars, 
Austrian Copper and Austrian Yellow, which need lighter 
ground and sunshine — some sunshine at least. 



CHAPTER XV 
CHINA ROSES 

' Whether by lake, or velvet fields, 
Of emerald lawn, where sunshine yields 
Plumed shadows not a few ; 
Or in the environs of thatch, 
Wliere not a window smiles to match, — 
Of ev'ry tint but blue, 
The roses laugh, and glow, and bless, 
Making all Summer one caress.' 

HAS any one ever come across a villa, or cottage, front 
garden all adorned by China Roses ? — I think not. 
Yet no other kind of front garden would give as little trouble 
for as fair an effect, keep in beauty as long, or prove less 
expensive in the course of years. 

Fill a garden with shrubs and trees only, round a gravel 
square, hoping to have done with trouble, and the day soon 
comes when a man has to prune, and there are embarrassing 
barrow-loads of rubbish to cart away, who can suggest where ? 

Fill it instead with China Roses, and directly the bushes 
seem to be getting too big cut them into shape, throw the 
little boughs thus obtained on the kitchen fire, or the garden 
refuse-heap ready for a bonfire, thinning out the bushes as 
well as cutting them tidy, then enjoy the spectacle of their 
fresh sprouting. Only do this, and never let the bushes get 
too big, then there will not be any further bother. 

March is, of course, the right time for the first pruning each 
year, and growers who want fewer, but extra fine blooms, 
cut back the branches to within six, or, at the most, eight 
' eyes ' from the base. 

107 



io8 ROSE GARDENING 

See that the soil is fairly rich, at first, and always give a late 
February mulch. 

If you wish for an extra good show, apply soot water, liquid 
manure of any sort, and sprinkle Fertilizer, in turns, each 
month of the rapidly-growing season. 

The China is just as fit an ornament for the great house's 
gardens. Indeed, it is especially lovely when massed by many- 
century-old walls of inhabited castles or romantic ruins. It 
is a rose that, when present by tens, sheds a wonderful sweet- 
ness abroad ; and when one is met by that particular fragrance 
one naturally thinks of many a remembered old-world garden, 
where Chinas revelled beside Lavender, Rosemary and Southern- 
wood bushes, among Sweet Williams, Snapdragons, Hen-and- 
chicken Daisies, Goat's Rue, Penstemons, Jacob's Ladders, 
and Pinks, in beds and borders all divided by giant edgings of 
Box, overarched by Golden Chain, and backed by English 
Hawthorn. 

A child can grow China Roses. Really children are very 
useful, to keep the dead blooms snipped off ; for that ensures 
a continuous flower-yield. 

China Roses are all quite hardy, and will flower in shade, 
even under the drip of tall deciduous trees ; though, for their 
real welfare, and to have them show what they are worth, 
they should be in sunshine. They endure smoky air ; they 
are splendid for pot culture either with or without forcing. 
They can be trained to cover low walls or fences, but, if so, 
should not be exposed to full sun, or they will flag both as to 
blooms and foliage. They can be propagated by layers, or 
by cuttings of the season's young shoots, six inches long, put 
into small pots in August or September, and wintered in cold 
frames. Another method is to put the cuttings into trenches 
against a south wall, at the end of September. 

An old writer says that the Chinas ' strike readily, especially 
if assisted by handlights and bottom-heat.' 

The all-yellow Double China is no more. At least, I fear 
not. It was the second tea-scented Hybrid Rose introduced 
to England, the first having been The Blush, or Rosa indica 



CHINA ROSES 



109 



odorata. Now we have countless Hybrid China Roses, yet 
the dear old Common Pink China remains indispensable. 

I once saw a garden that possessed a steep grassy hill, all 
flecked with crocuses, single daffodils, and wood anemones in 
spring, and beautified by yellow coronilla tufts and harebells 
in summer, between bushes of China Roses. At the foot of 
the hill, in a less exposed position therefore, was a continuous 
hedge of Hybrid Chinas. 

How the bees and butterflies haunted that spot ! To lie on 
the turf, with a crimson rose dropping scented petals on the 
right, and a tall white rose scattering snowflakes on the left, 
able to gaze up at azure sky, or down at azure bird's-eye and 
harebells, and bask and dream, was the kind of holiday that 
never palls. 

The following are some of the best of these dainty and pro- 
lific roses : 



Common Old Monthly Pink. 
Wild-rose pink. 

Old Crimson. Small but double. 

Cramoisie Superieure. Crim- 
son. Double. 

White Pet. Miniature. 

Arethusa. Deep yellow. 

Aurora. Gold, tinted pale car- 
mine. Very perfumed. 

Chin Chin. Yellow. 

CoMTESSE DE Cayla. A blend of 
gold, copper, and red. 

Ducher. White. 

Alice Hamilton. Velvety red. 
Semi-double. 

Fabvier. Crimson^ with white 
centre. 

Hermosa. Double pink. 

Irene Watts. White, salmon- 
flushed. 



Queen Mab. Rosy apricot, with 

deep gold centre. 
Madame Laurette Messimy. 

Deep pink, yellow shaded. 
Leuchtfeuer. Brilliant scarlet 

crimson. 
Papa Hemeray. Scarlet single, 

with white centre. 
Madame Eugene Resal. Rose 

and orange. 
Eugene Beauharnais. Damask 

crimson. 
TiTANiA. Coppery pink. 
Charlotte Klemm. A blood-red 

and gold blend. 
Mdlle. de la Valette. a gold 

and ruby blend. Scented. 
Little Meg. Creamy white, 

sometimes edged crimson. Star- 
shaped, in clusters. 



CHAPTER XVI 
THE WHIMS OF ROSES 

' Thorns will put on roses to-morrow, 
Winter and sorrow scudding away.' 

Christina Rossetti. 

THERE is no doubt about it, Roses have individual char- 
acters. I do not mean that all La Frances behave 
in a La France way, or that every Grace Darling sulks because 
some certainly do. No, — there are family traits, to be detected 
by the ardent rosarian, as we all admit, but also special trees 
in one's garden, no matter their parentage, species, or noted 
idiosyncrasies, exhibit strong, original, extra peculiarities. 

At first thought this may seem unimportant, a mere frivo- 
lous cotnment to make in a book on Rose Culture, but it is 
really most desirable to learn how to deal with refractory 
specimens. Suppose a tree persists in remaining quite dwarf, 
in a bed where the others grow properly ? The good roses 
must not be pruned down hard to make them match the height 
of the naughty rose. Of course the offender can be removed, 
but, believe me, the real heart-and-soul gardener hates to let 
a tree, shrub, or plant get the better of him. Transplanting, 
however desirable, is an admission of having been beaten. 

Well, there is a method that usually makes a rose-bush grow 
fast — that is to limit it to two, or three, main stems, keep the 
leaves stripped from two-thirds up these, water it copiously, 
and mulch with Hop-manure. 

Sometimes a tree keeps dwarf because it is growing in ground 
too hard for it. I generally try loosening such a tree a very 
little in the earth, using a large fork with extreme care, flood- 
ing beneath it with the mildest of liquid manure, and then 

no 



THE WHIMS OF ROSES iii 

treading it in again ; for no tree can grow, of course, if it 
wobbles. Cultivators often need reminding that roots cannot 
grow in rock, though loose shifting soil is, maybe, worse. 
The New Testament parable of the sowing of the good 
seed contains many a fine lesson for gardeners. 

Suppose a rose drops all its buds ? — That is a great trouble, 
I have found it caused by the ground being worm-tunnelled, 
and waterings with a weak solution of mustard, in rain water, 
have invariably driven the worms out. If a quantity of nice 
sandy loam is put round the bush, lightly forked in, and 
trodden level, then heavily watered, the tunnels will be filled 
up. Rose-buds may drop off because there is a draught. We 
know how a lady in a drawing-room will manoeuvre to avoid 
a direct current of air, but My Lady Rose cannot move in her 
bed to escape a chill wind. The simple expedient of training 
out the boughs of some of the neighbouring roses, tying them 
to each other, or to the tops of short sticks, will screen a feeble 
bush, and the next crop of buds will probably be able to 
develop. 

Often enough a Rose takes a dislike to some ingredient in the 
soil. Oh, it may be a carefully prepared bed, or border, but 
just one trowelful of unhealthy stuff, a lump or two of crude 
clay, a rusty tin, a mouldy bone, some rotting ivy or laurel 
leaves, may be the cause of mischief. Again, the tap-root 
may have struck on a stone, or slab of concrete, or bit of slate, 
and the tree will flag and sicken until the root can turn aside 
into free soil. I admit that a Rose often appears to flag out 
of sheer cussedness, still let us give each invalid the benefit 
of the doubt, and doctor it for illness, not for temper. If the 
roots have encountered what for them is poison, the only hope 
of saving the tree is to move it right away. 

It is wonderful how a weak, backward, or non-blooming 
Rose will become one of the best in the garden after being 
moved to another place. 

If it has fallen ill in full sun, give it semi-shade, and vice 
versa. If it has failed in dry soil, see if it will not do better 
in the damp. 



112 ROSE GARDENING 

Moving roses from one part of the country to another is a 
charming bit of speculation. I have found that inland-Sussex 
roses taken to the Sussex coast improve, in the main. Hert- 
fordshire gravel-soil roses, taken to Kentish clay, give finer 
flowers, but some of the trees will die. 

My Sussex coast roses, moved into Warwickshire, resent the 
change, as a whole ; a few that were captious formerly, how- 
ever, have burgeoned forth so powerfully that it is difficult to 
believe they are the same trees. A Mrs. Sam Ross, that had 
been a terribly shy bloomer, and would not grow tall, as the 
variety should do, put up strong boughs, and yielded the true 
apricot-cream blossoms, in early June. A puny Grace Darling 
now tries to become a standard. 

Every tree that sulks has some real grievance. Now and 
then, tying out branches to stout sticks, to keep them from 
being wind-tossed, affords a tree all the help it craves. 

A lanky tree, that goes all to leaf and stem, should be left 
unpruned half a year, nearly. By the first weeks of August 
it will very likely have had enough of being only great and 
green, and if cut back hard will have time to flower a little 
before winter, and will prove grandly floriferous next year. 

A tree that buds and buds, but has feeble leaves that nearly 
all drop off, after yellowing, can generally be cured by doses 
of soot-water. 

Occasionally insects are the cause of the apparent whims of 
rose-trees. Of three Hugh Dicksons of mine, two grew large 
and blossomed lavishly; the third was feeble, and never gave 
more than one decent flower a season. They were not far 
apart, in an ideal site, a south-west border, backed by a close 
wooden fence. Having exhausted all the art at my command, 
I was leaving the sorry specimen alone, resolving to move it 
into a portion of outer garden that is called the Infirmary, 
when a friend came to look round, and opened my eyes to the 
real trouble, 

' Don't you find the tree always devoured by green-fly ? ' 
he asked. 

' Yes. Sickly trees always attract pests.' 



THE WHIMS OF ROSES 



113 



He smiled. 

' And some trees are rendered sickly by being infested. 
Keep it washed, from toe to tip, with a weak solution of Sanitas 
fluid and water, and pour once on the soil a bucketful of suds 
made with any good carbolic soap.' 

The effect was wondrous. The tree revived. I had cut it 
back first, and new shoots sprang forth from every branch. 




Rose with Branches Trained Out. 



shoots red to begin with, then the vivid deep green rose 
enthusiasts thrill to behold. Buds followed, and resulted in 
fine velvety scarlet-crimson flowers, in profusion. 

My friend was justly proud. 

' Green-fly preferred that Hugh Dickson to the others,' he 
said, ' because north winds were shut off from it by that hedge, 

H 



114 ROSE GARDENING 

and yet, through the shght slant of the border, it gets more 
westerly sun in the day, just a little longer span of sunheat. 
And you neglected fighting its foes because you had no respect 
for it.' 

A quite hardy rose, in a too hot place, may ' refuse to bloom ' 
because its tiny sap-needing buds are dried to death, baked 
brown. A Madame Berard against a south wall was a proof 
of this. Only the closest observation proved that its shoots 
were not blind, but held scorched-up infant buds. Moved 
to a westerly wall it quickly recovered its reputation as a 
fairly free bloomer, — not as free as its relative, the old Gloire 
de Dijon, still, a giver of better formed and more golden 
flowers. 



CHAPTER XVII 
ROSES OF RARE COLOUR 

' Saints are like roses when they flush rarest"; 
Saints are hke hhes when they bloom fairest ; 

All like roses rarer than the rarest.' 

Christina Rossetti. 

THE Lyon Rose is the most astounding colour-variant 
ever introduced into the Rose family. Until it arrived 
no rose with that shrimp tint, that has been called also a 
' diluted terra-cotta,' had blossomed within the memory of 
Man. Other roses since have been of the same class of shade, 
brighter, or deeper, yet The Lyon still holds its own. One 
can detect it at a show, or in a garden, from afar. 

For a blend-rose I would give the prize to the Marquis de 
Sinety, a marvellous golden-ochre flower, flushed and streaked 
with bronze red, and often with magenta. Some rose-lovers 
give the palm to Juliet, or Rayon d'Or, others to Soleil d'Or. 
So the point shall not be pressed. 

No rose of blended hues has ever the astonishing effect of 
the Lyon Rose, or of other striking ' selfs,' such as the dazzling 
scarlet single Hybrid Tea, K. of K. — a true pillar-box red. By- 
the-bye, single roses are generally more brilliant in appearance 
than doubles, just because, where petal folds over petal, 
shades are cast in a flower, whereas a wide flat bloom catches 
the light on each satiny petal's surface. But we are now out 
to consider the beauty of certain rare-hued roses, not only 
their brightness. 

For poppy scarlet the rose to grow is the Hybrid Perpetual 

115 



ii6 ROSE GARDENING 

Rouge Angevine, which often gets taken for a paeony, so large 
and separate-petalled are its blooms when fully expanded. 
For a tulip scarlet there is Dora van Tets. For a scarlet that 
shades down into orange-yellow there is the Hybrid Tea, 
Augustus Hartmann. My choice of a nearly purple rose would 
be Gloire de Ducher. A decided black tone in the deep crim- 
son blossoms of Captain F. Bald makes it indeed a rarity, as 
well as a most welcome addition to the older dark roses, while, 
being a Hybrid Tea, it excels in vigour. 

Chameleon is flame colour, deepening to cerise at the edges, 
and quite unlike the cerise roses of the past. Cleveland, a 
Hybrid Tea, combines gold, copper, and vieux-rose ; a con- 
noisseur has said it always reminds him of sunset sunbeams 
on old red brick. 

There is a water-colour pigment called orange-cadmium that 
matches the beautiful rose named Edward Bohane, except 
that, when richly fed, the latter gains a vermilion blush. 

Flame of Fire is yet another strangely bright Hybrid Tea ; 
an orange flame it is, not the glow of red coals. 

Francis Gaunt is very remarkable, in a different style, for 
it is really palest hazel brown under intense culture, fawn- 
straw when ill-nourished, — certainly not gay, but quite unique 
and with a charm for many persons. 

How shall I describe Irish Afterglow, a single ? — Well, the 
raiser says of it that it is ' deep tangerine, passing to crushed 
strawberry.' But there language fails. The rare hues of the 
different stages, of bud, of fully developed, and fading bloom, 
must be seen to be believed. After all, the name is the best 
description ; the western sky, when a day has died gloriously, 
has all those blends. Beatrice, Hybrid Tea, can be included 
among rare coloured roses, especially as variants among pinks 
are scarce ; the colour is rich deep rose, the petals have 
curls, in the La France style, and the edges become quite pale, 
producing a remarkable variegated effect. 

I have heard Florence E. Coulthwaite, Hybrid Tea, called 
an original colour rose, because its cream petals are dotted 
with pink inside ; anyhow it is lovely, and large. 



ROSES OF RARE COLOUR 



117 



Josiah Henslow, Hybrid Tea, described as brilliant orange- 
crimson, always secures attention. 

Other roses I can recommend for similar merit are : 



Mrs. C. V. Haworth. Hybrid 
Tea. Pale buff, shaded with 
apricot, and with a film of cerise 
rose over immense petals. 

Entente Cordiale. Hybrid Tea. 
Nasturtium red-gold. 

Mrs. E. G. Hill. Hybrid Tea. 
While the inside of the full flower 
is white, the outside is cerise red. 

Mrs. F. W. Vanderbilt. Hybrid 
Tea. Bronzy orange red. 

Mrs. Henry Balfour. Hybrid 
Tea. Ivory, deepening to a 
primrose core, with petals edged 
by a picotee line of cerise. 

Mrs. Wallace H. Rowe. Hy- 
brid Tea. Called Sweet Pea 
mauve. 

P. L. Baudet. Hybrid Tea. A 
carmine rose, curiously marked 
with salmony yellow. 

Serge Bassett. Hybrid Tea. 
Garnet red. 

The Queen Alexandra. Hybrid 
Tea. Vermilion, the petals 
nearly all gold outside. 

Pierre Notting. Hybrid Per- 
petual. Blackish crimson, 
shaded with violet. An old 
favourite. 

General Schablikine. Tea. 
Coppery red. 

Molly Sharman Crawford. 
Tea. Green-shaded white. 

Rainbow. Tea. A pale pink 
rose, shaded, splashed and 
streaked with carmine. 



LfioNiE Lamesch. Dwarf Poly- 
antha. Tomato red. 

Soleil de Angers. Pernetiana. 
Ochre gold, edged vermilion. 

Veilchenblau. Climbing Poly- 
antha. Slate blue. 

David Pradel. Hybrid Tea. Pale 
rose and lavender, mottled. 

Hugo Roller. Tea. Lemon 
yellow, flushed and edged crim- 
son. 

Mrs. David Baillie. Hybrid 
Tea. Madder carmine, veined 
maroon. 

Marechal Vaillant. Hybrid 
Perpetual. Brilliant red-purple. 

Brightness of Cheshunt. Hy- 
brid Perpetual. Brick red. 

Madame Delville. Hybrid Per- 
petual. Lilac rose. 

Purple East. Climber. Car- 
mine purple ; semi-double. 

Pride of Reigate. Hybrid Per- 
petual. Pale crimson, striped 
maroon. 

Verna Mackay. Hybrid Tea. 
Ivory-buff. 

Mrs. Ambrose Riccardo. Hy- 
brid Tea. Honey colour. 

Lilian Moore. Hybrid Tea. Deep 
Indian yellow, and camellia 
shaped. 

Chameleon. Hybrid Tea. 
Striped with gorgeous colours, on 
cerise. 

Vesta Pernetiana. Vieux rose. 



CHAPTER XVIII 
FRAGRANT ROSES 

' Again with wealth of colour do ye bloom and bend to meet us. 
Again your own sweet fragrance fills the blissful Summer hours.' 

Maud Mary Brooker. 

IF all sweet-scented roses were mentioned, a book would 
have to consist only of their names. So I give a long list 
here, at the close of this chapter, of my own favourites, and 
some notable new introductions, omitting the most familiar 
roses, such as La France, Dorothy Perkins, Marechal Niel, 
etc., of which rose enthusiasts do not need reminding. Per- 
haps the sweetest rose of all, apart from the Tea-scented, which 
are a race by themselves, is the old Duke of Edinburgh. And 
I cannot resist a few prefacing words on the uses of scented 
roses. 

Firstly, we may plant for concentrated scent in the garden, 
and it is an interesting discovery that we gain most sweetness 
from a dell, or sunk bed or border, of roses. The perfume 
ascends to greet the passer-by. 

The roses in each bed may be of mixed varieties, or all of one ; 
the latter being best where trees can be had by the hundred, 
instead of by tens, or units. 

Secondly, we can put scented roses in front of the house 
windows and nail them up to the wall to reach the bedroom 
levels. 

Thirdly, there is indescribable charm about a little scented 
rose-garden kept mainly for night enjoyment, where dry paths 
of white paving stone lead between beds and borders edged 
by whitened stones to keep feet from straying in the dark ; 
where a few evergreens, clipped, if preferred, and a tall fir or 

118 



FRAGRANT ROSES 



119 



two, stand as wind-screens and to cast quaint black shadows ; 
where the time can be occasionally told from a moon-dial, and 
music from the drawing-room can be softly heard. 

Fourthly, we can cultivate scented roses in front gardens, 
perhaps as an avenue up to the door, to welcome visitors. Or 
we may grow varieties only to gather, to arrange in vases, to 
wear, to give away. 

Well-fed, but not manure-gorged roses give the best fra- 
grance ; guano seems to specially increase it. In hottest 
gardens sunheat often draws the perfume out uselessly, dries 
the scent-sap, I suppose, before the buds are really expanded ; 
semi-shade would be better. 

I am convinced that dripping seasons, and over-watering, 
decrease rose-perfume. 

Roses for fragrance must never be gathered during or soon 
after rain. 



Gardenia. Wichuraiana 

Climber. Yellow. 

DEBUTANTE. Wichuraiana 
Climber. Deep pink. 

RfeNfe ANDRfe. Wichuraiana 

Climber. Orange yellow. 

Ards Rover. Climber. Maroon- 
crimson. 

Waltham Climber, No. 2. Crim- 
son. 

AvocA. Hybrid Tea. Crimson- 
scarlet. 

Conrad Ferdinand Meyer. 
Rugosa, or Japanese Briar. Sil- 
very pink. 

Aladdin. Hybrid Tea. Cop- 
pery orange gold. 

Mrs. E. J. Hicks. Hybrid Tea. 
Pale pink, that turns to blush. 

Walter C. Clark. Hybrid Tea. 
Maroon. 

Nova Zembla. Rugosa. White. 

Alexander Emslie. Hybrid Tea. 
Velvet crimson, with white centre. 

Betty. Hybrid Tea. Salmon rose. 



Chateau de Clos Vouget. 
Hybrid Tea. Fiery scarlet- 
crimson. 

CoLCESTRiA. Hybrid Tea. Rose 
pink. 

Countess of Lonsdale. Hybrid 
Tea. Deep yellow. 

Crimson Chatenay. Hybrid 
Tea. Crimson. 

C. W. Haworth. Hybrid Tea. 
Crimson- scarlet, black shaded. 

Duchess of Wellington. Hy- 
brid Tea. Orange gold. 

Duchess of Westminster. Hy- 
brid Tea. Rose. 

Edith Part. Hybrid Tea. Old 
rose and salmony yellow. 

G. A. Hammond. Hybrid Tea. 
Apricot gold and fawn. 

George Dickson. Hybrid Tea. 
Velvety blackish crimson. 

GusTAVE Gunnerwald. Hybrid 
Tea. Cannine-pink. 

Hadley. Hybrid Tea. Velvet 
crimson. 



120 



ROSE GARDENING 



Henrietta. Hybrid Tea. Or- 
ange, cerise, crimson-orange. 

His Majesty. Hybrid Tea. 
Crimson. 

WiCHURAiANA Alba. Single 
white. 

WiCHMOSS. Moss. Pink. Climb- 
ing, semi-double. 

Rosa Moschata Alba. White. 
Musk-scented. 

Pax. Hybrid Moss. Lemony 
white. 

Tuscany. Damask. 

Soleil d'Or. Austrian Briar. 
Nasturtium red, orange, rose. 

Magna Charta. Hybrid Perpet- 
ual. Rose. 

RuHM DES Cartenwelt. Hy- 
brid Tea. Blood red. 

Maman Cochet. Tea. Carmine 
and rosy salmon. 

The Dandy. Hybrid Tea. Crim- 
son-scarlet. Very rich scent. 

Lady Helen Stuart. Hybrid 
Tea. Crimson-scarlet. Also very 
scented. 

Prince of Wales. Hybrid Tea. 
Bright red. 

Vesta. Pernetiana. Orange, 
scarlet, salmon, vieux rose. 

Edward Mawley. Hybrid Tea. 
Rosy crimson. Said to be the 
sweetest. 

^TOiLE DE Lyon. Tea. Yellow. 

Jonkheer J. L. Monck. Hybrid 
Tea. Carmine. 

Madame Jules Grolez. Hybrid 
Tea. Rose. 

Madame Lambard. Tea. Pink. 

Madame Falcot. Tea. Apri- 
cot. 

George Arends. Hybrid Per- 
petual. Known as the pink 
Druschki. 

Friedrichruh. Tea. Blood red. 



Alexander Hill Gray. Tea. 

Lemon. 
Lemon Queen. Hybrid Perpet- 
ual. White and lemon. 
Miss Alice de Rothschild. 

Tea. Citron yellow. 
Mrs. Campbell Hall. Tea. 

Creamy white, edged rose, with 

cerise centre. 
AscHENBRODEL. Dwarf Poly- 

antha. Peach and orange. 
AuRORE. China. Gold, flushed 

with rosy carmine. 
Brunswick Charm. Climbing 

Wichuraiana. Orange yellow. 
Alberic Barbier. Climber. 

Creamy yellow. 
Ellen Ponson. Dwarf Polyan- 

tha. Cherry rose. 
Colton Pearl. Rambler. White. 
Cordelia. Perpetual Climber. 

Yellow. 
Iona Herdmann. Hybrid Tea. 

Orange. 
James Coey. Hybrid Tea. Yellow. 
Janet. Hybrid Tea. Buff gold. 
Juliet. Hybrid Tea. Old gold. 

Rosy red, carmine marked. 
KiLLARNEY BRILLIANT. Hybrid 

Tea. Rosy carmine. 
Lady Greenall. Hybrid Tea. 

Pale sulphur yellow. 
Lady Ursula. Flesh. 
Lyon Rose. Hybrid Tea. 

Shrimp. 
Madame Marcel Delaney. Hy- 
brid Tea. Pale pink. 
Major Peirson. Hybrid Tea. 

Apricot. 
Marie Adelaide, Grand Duch- 

EssE DE Luxembourg. Hy- 
brid Tea. Orange. 
Molly Bligh. Hybrid Tea. 

Madder rose on orange. Musk 

scented. 



FRAGRANT ROSES 



121 



Moonlight. Hybrid Tea. A 
cluster rose, lemony white. 

Mrs. a. Gled Kidston. Hybrid 
Tea. Brownish crimson and 
deep rose. 

Mrs. Alfred Tate. Hybrid Tea. 
Fawn and red-salmon. 

Mrs. Ambrose Riccardo. Hy- 
brid Tea. Honey gold. 

Mrs. Arthur E. Coxhead. Hy- 
brid Tea. Claret red, on ver- 
milion. 

Mrs. Charles E. Pearson. Hy- 
brid Tea. Orange, terra-cotta 
red, and fawn yellow. 

Mrs. Charles Reed. Hybrid 
Tea. Cream,, peach, gold. 

Mrs. C. V. Haworth. Hybrid 
Tea. Brownish apricot buff, 
sheened with rosy cerise. 

Mrs. E. J. Holland. Hybrid 
Tea. Deep salmon rose. 

Mrs. Elisha Hicks. Hybrid Tea. 
Very pale pink. 

Mrs. F. W. Vanderbilt. Hybrid 
Tea. Orange red, shaded bronze. 

Mrs. Maud Dawson. Hybrid 
Tea. Orange carmine. 

Mrs. Walter Easlea. Hybrid 
Tea. Crimson-carmine. 

My Maryland. Hybrid Tea. 
Salmon. 

Queen Mary. Hybrid Tea. 
Canary yellow, pencilled with 
carmine. 



Queen of Fragrance. Hybrid 

Tea. Shell pink. 
Red Cross. Hybrid Tea. Scarlet. 
W. E. LiPPiAT. Hybrid Tea. 

Maroon-crimson. 
River's Musk. Pinky, on deep 

cream. Climbing. 
Queen of the Musks. Pinky 

white. Climbing. 
Snowstorm. Mitsk. White, small 

flowers, in bunches, a constant 

bloomer. 
Splendens. a pinky white Ayr- 
shire, semi - double, evergreen. 

Myrrh scented. 
Princess Victoria. Hybrid Tea. 

Salmon cerise, on gold base. 
Captain Kilbee Stuart. Hy- 
brid Tea. Velvety scarlet. 
Vanity. Hybrid Musk. Pink, 

semi-double, in clusters. 
Miss Connor. Hybrid Tea 

(1920). Canary yellow. 
Lady Anderson. Hybrid Tea 

(1920). Coral and flesh on 

yellow. 
Lady Dixon. Hybrid Tea. Ap- 
ricot, salmon pink. 
Mrs.C.V. Haworth. Hybrid Tea. 

Apricot, buff, flushed rose aftd 

lemon. 
Charles K. Douglas. Hybrid 

Tea. Scarlet-crimson. 
Colonel Oswald Fitzgerald. 

Hybrid Tea. Blood red. 



CHAPTER XIX 
SOIL FOR ROSES 

' Dear Heart of Earth, that hast secure, 
Our rose-wTeaths in thy keeping. 
Dear Dew of Night, that watereth 
The roots where they he sleeping.' 

THE gardener who will take most trouble is the gardener 
who succeeds. It is rare to possess an ideal garden 
soil for roses, so the rose planter has to work hard, one way 
or another, to improve the soil, according to its deficiencies. 
He may do this either partly, or perfectly. The Rose is an 
accommodating Queen ; she will reign under rather adverse 
circumstances, but her record is, naturally, more glorious 
when circumstances enable her to show her finest qualities. 

Stiff cold clay soil can be improved by forking it to a depth 
of three feet, and putting in a lot of grit of some sort : sand, 
road sweepings from clean country roads, or river-bed sand 
will do, and old horse manure. This work should be finished 
two or three months at least before roses are planted. 

Or the ground can be scientifically trenched, which means 
removing the top foot of soil, then the second foot, keeping 
them separate, then forking and turning the third foot, and 
mixing manure, etc., with it. Then putting the removed top 
foot of soil in, then a thick layer of manure, etc., then making 
up with the second foot of removed soil, which becomes the 
surface soil. 

Trenching is seldom required except by new ground, or 
neglected ground. After-care of trenched soil is easy ; more 
old manure can be forked into the top eighteen inches each 
year, until the fourth year, when it may, or may not, be 
desirable to fork up the whole depth of three feet, and add 
manure below also. 

122 



SOIL FOR ROSES 123 

Good garden ground, with manure, grit, and lime forked in 
to a three-feet depth, and incorporated with all the soil, is 
excellent for roses, but the manure must be well decayed, 
and adequate time, two or three months at all events, be 
given it to become composite. During these months some 
light forkings should be given. 

There are other ingredients that assist the soil. Vegetable 
ashes are capital, but not demanded by old pasture land, 
or old cultivated vegetable gardens. Hop manure supplies 
a nice texture, as well as imparting the elements of plant 
food ; it is of the prepared, or fertilized, hop manures sold 
for gardens that I am speaking. No green grass, freshly 
fallen leaves, prunings of trees or shrubs, should ever be put 
into rose-land. Burn them, all but laurel or ivy, on the site, 
or elsewhere, and the ashes become of enormous value. 

If the ground to be used for the garden has been pasture- 
land, it will be sufficient to add horse-manure at a depth of 
three feet, where shrubs, roses and strong-growing peren- 
nials are to be set, and merely to fork up and weed the ground 
for bulbous and bedding subjects. 

Sour, or insect-infested ground, or land over which vege- 
tation has been left to grow wild, ought to be forked to the 
three-feet depth, thrown up in ridges, and left rough for 
months, for rains, winds, frosts, and snows, to sweeten ; it 
should be frequently turned over that birds may peck the 
foes out. 

Incorporating gas-lime, while the ground lies idle for six 
months, or dressing it often with freshly slacked builder's lime, 
and soot, is also good. But birds mostly avoid dressed soil, so 
I would give them their chance first, if they are numerous 
in the locality. Frosts, snows, and April showers, are won- 
derful gardeners. A stony garden must have a great deal 
of old cow-manure, leaf-mould, and vegetable ash dug in, 
soot too, and, if possible, some stiff clayish loam. It is not 
difficult to obtain the last, for builders habitually come across 
it, and dig it up, when excavating for new buildings. These 
improving ingredients can be added by the trenching system, 



124 ROSE GARDENING 

or haphazard, at the gardener's will. Mixed farmyard 
manure is excellent for the average garden soil, cow-manure 
for the too light soil, dry horse-manure for the sandy or 
gravelly soil, very strawy horse-manure for the chalky or 
sandy soil, and some cow-manure also. 

A chalky soil does not want lime, but most other soils do. 
There are other methods, of course, for improving soils, but 
they all come to mostly the same thing. 

This is the great gardener-author Glenny's advice for rose 
gardens : 

' If the soil be light, holes must be dug, and loam and dung 
forked in at the bottom of the hole, as well as the hole be 
filled up with the same mixture. . . . Kitchen gardens, weU 
kept up, will always grow the Rose well, and, unless the 
soil is very poor and very light, a good spadeful of rotten 
dung mixed with the soil where the Rose is planted will 
answer all the purpose.' He also points out that many a 
Rose has come single, or semi-double, through the evil effects 
of poor soil — a Rose that was meant to be double, of course. 
It is true, too, that many a Rose has come of miserable colour, 
weak stem, and flabby texture, from the same cause. 

In some famous gardens the stiff cold clay soil has been 
dug out, burnt, and replaced, manure, grit, and bone-meal 
being added, to make a perfect compost, and prevent stag- 
nant wet in winter. Roses do not need manuring for a year 
after being newly planted ; the richness of the prepared bed 
or border being all they can digest. 

Mulching with manure in November is a good preventive 
to injury from frost, on light dry soil ; it is dangerous on heavy, 
wet, cloggy soil ; the mulch in the latter case should be of 
fresh turf loam and leaf-mould. 

March mulchings are safe, and when there are a great number 
of trees, and the gardener's time is precious, it enables him 
to feel comfortable about his trees if they cannot have all 
the later attentions that he would like to give them. Mulched 
trees do not suffer from droughts as do those in bare-surfaced 
ground. It is a good plan to scatter lime under and over 



SOIL FOR ROSES 125 

mulches. The way to really lime a plot is to scatter fresh- 
slaked lime at the rate of one pound to a square yard, and 
lightly fork it into the surface soil a few days later. 

A simple way to manure a plot for roses is to dig a two-foot 
wide, and one-foot deep, trench across the plot, lay three 
or four inches of manure at the base, forking it in. Then 
dig more trench alongside — that is to say between the digger 
and the length already dug — throwing its soil into Trench 
Number i. Trench Number 2, being manured, is filled up 
with soil from Trench Number 3, and so on, until all the 
piece of ground has been dealt with. 

Ground when prepared should not shift loosely under the 
foot, nor be so solid as to leave no impression of the foot. 
The clods should be all pulverized, and the large and medium- 
sized stones removed. 

Slants need more manure than do levels, hot borders than 
shady ones. 

If the soil cakes directly sunshine falls on it after rains, 
it is not in good condition, needs manure, vegetable ash, 
lime, and a lot of working. 

The hoe is the Rose's best friend. Well-hoed ground can 
do with half the feeding and watering that is essential to 
keep roses healthy in ground where the gardener scamps 
hoe, or fork, labour. I would rather have mossy saxifrages, 
rock-cresses, viola cornutas, and forget-me-nots over the 
rose-beds than let them be burnt and caked by sun-heat. 
In gardens of new soil the use of carpeting plants has much 
to recommend it ; they conserve moisture, and protect as 
well as assist in the decomposition of vegetable and animal 
substances. 

The ignorant gardener is puzzled about how much manure 
he ought to put into the ground. Well — I find that simplest 
instructions are those most likely to be remembered and 
followed, so I always tell questioners to allow a barrow-load 
of manure to a plot that measures twelve feet by twelve ; 
providing, of course, that the soil needs feeding, this will 
not be excessive. 



CHAPTER XX 
PLANTING ROSES 

'A rose, A child, A bird, A star — 
Those are my loves ; better them ye who can.' 

THE end of October is the time I prefer for planting roses. 
November, an excellent month, is a better one than 
December, because the trees become more fitted to resist the 
cold. February will do, if weather and temperature are 
favourable, and the work could not be done before Christmas, 
but I never plant in February if I can avoid it. Really, one 
always can avoid it, unless one is going away later. 

How ? Well, if the trees are in hand too soon they can 
be kept waiting for six weeks. There is not the least risk 
about delaying planting, even for three or four months, if 
the proper method is pursued. 

Dig a deep, flat-bottomed trench, wide enough to take 
the bushes laid out across it ; put in a few inches of good 
compost, leaving it loose. The trees can overlap each other. 
Cover them in with nice crumbly soil, just damp. Fill up 
the trench. While they lie there they will swell, and even 
put forth young white fibrous rootlets. Of course the most 
extreme care must be taken not to break those when planting 
is done. 

This is different from the system of keeping roses a little 
while — say a few days — by ' putting them in by the heels,' 
That means half, or three quarters, burying them, upright 
or slanted, not laid flat. 

If trees received from a distance look dry at the roots, 
or appear very flagged, I always stand them, root, branch, 
and foliage altogether if possible, in a bath of rain-water, 

126 



PLANTING ROSES 



127 



made tepid if the season is bitter. They can be kept in it 
twelve, eighteen, or twenty-four hours, if necessary. If 
they cannot be planted then, they must be buried wholly, as 
described, because if a portion obtruded from the soil, and 
a sharp frost ensued, being wet, the wood would suffer. 




Rose Trees Laid in Trench to Await a Good Planting Time. 



The amateur's first idea is to get ' the new trees in,' at any 
cost. You may see him delving away, out in pouring rain, 
cutting soaked soil into sticky chunks, standing for hours 
in pools, sinking into bogs, as uncomfortable as man can 
be, and making things most disastrously uncomfortable for 



128 ROSE GARDENING 

the roses. He had better by far have buried them for weeks. 

Choose a pleasant day for planting, especially pleasant 
under foot, and don't get flurried. Never mind if a crust 
of thin ice, or frost, has to be broken first, as long as the soil 
below is not frosted, but the cold upper stuff must not be 
thrown into the holes. 

Snow must infallibly be kept from falling in. The bad 
practice of digging holes for trees, and leaving them open for 
weather to act on, is extremely perilous, and always does some 
mischief, though that may not be detected till much later. 

Never dig up submerged, or partly submerged, trees before 
they can be planted. The roots must not be exposed at all 
to the atmosphere. Have all tools close at hand, including 
stakes, tying materials, and labels. 

Make a hole two feet deep, and about the same width, 
for any strong rose tree. Hold the tree in the hole ; ascertain 
how deep it must go in order to have the junction of briar- 
stock and rose just covered. Shovel in the removed soil 
until the hole is full enough for the roots to almost rest on 
this. The ground having been prepared earlier, there will 
be no more manure to add, only a handful of sandy loam, 
with a scattering of bone-meal, if wished, and, in all cases, 
some little bits of the fibres of dead turves for the rootlets 
to be able to cling to at once ; failing turf-loam fragments, 
really old cocoa-nut fibre refuse will do. 

Hold the tree with the left hand, while the right hand 
spreads out the roots. Do not try to force roots out of their 
shape ; if they have all grown sideways, and become stiff, 
they must remain in their form. Sometimes roots go all 
one way because the tree has been blown by sou'-west gales ; 
keep the roots on the sou'-west side now, and put a stout 
stake on the opposite side. 

It is a great help to have a comrade to hold each rose tree 
steady. 

Work some good compost between, and around, the roots, 
and add a couple of inches of this above them. Make the 
roots firm in the soil, but do not pound it into a sort of con- 




GOLDEX l-.MBLEM (JV/A-r,.) 1 APV AI.Ii K STANLKY iPink) 

GKXERAT, McARTHUR (/wv/) 



PLANTING ROSES 129 

Crete. Of course the proper placing for rose roots is to spread 
them out evenly on all sides, but this cannot invariably be 
carried out. 

Fill up the hole to about a couple of inches above the level 
of the rest of the ground ; do not be persuaded to make it 
any higher against the stems of the trees, or no rains will 
be able to enter where they should. 

See that the stakes are quite firm, and that the ties are not 
so tight as to check sap, yet not so loose as to leave the bough 
or stem shaking. 

If the weather is not frosty, give a gallon of rain water to 
each tree. If the temperature is dangerous, or sharp frost 
may be expected at night, defer the watering until a genial 
spell comes. Go round the trees a week later, and tread 
them in, making the surface of the ground then just level. 

In severe weather strew straw lightly and evenly over the 
bed, or border, or lay down the feathered ends of pea-faggots. 
Tall climbers should be given as deep holes as their great 
roots call for, and, if buried before they can be planted, may 
lie in the trench long-ways, instead of across. 

The stems of planted climbers should be from four to six 
inches distant from the walls or fences. 

For Dwarf, Polyantha and Tea bushes, holes of eighteen- 
inch depth, or even only a foot, will suffice. 

For advice as to treating soil for rose planting, when the 
site has not been prepared in advance, see the preceding 
chapter. If stakes are not put in at the same time as the rose 
trees, there is danger of piercing, or breaking, the roots. 

Affix labels. If wire or tarred string is used, see that these 
do not cut or cripple the wood. Even if they are loose enough 
at first they will be tight ligatures as the branches develop, 
so watchfulness will be advisable later on. 

It is always wise to fix labels to the stakes, instead of to the 
roses ; by cutting a little groove in a stake the string is 
prevented from slipping. 

After heavy rains the trees will need treading firm. Do 
this directly the ground can be walked over without injury. 



CHAPTER XXI 
ROSE PRUNING 

* The Heaven of which we dream lacks neither bird nor rose.' 

Mary Engell. 

THE expert rose grower has only to look at a rose-tree 
to know at once what cutting it needs. The amateur 
rose-grower craves some hard and fast rules by which he can 
cut his roses, year after year — and he cannot have such rules. 
There are plain precepts, of course, but they are useless in 
many cases, and private judgment must always be exercised. 

With common-sense, however, the rose grower, new to his 
business, need not make any blunders that will do irreparable 
harm. Look at an old, or moderately old, Hybrid Perpetual 
bush in March. It is a mass of stout stems, with boughs 
springing out of these in all directions. Examination shows 
that some of the stout stems are a year, or years older than 
others ; the eldest are the ones to cut away altogether, 
to prevent the centre of the bush from becoming blocked, 
and to make more light and air for the others. It may be 
necessary to take off some of the semi-old stems too, right 
down at their base, whether this is out of the very earth, 
or from the visible trunk. But a pruner should always be 
very chary of cutting off any of what are known as the basal 
shoots. 

All stems that cross, so as to touch each other, must be 
cut away, unless there is space to bend them horizontally 
and train them out to stakes, and this sometimes interferes 
with the symmetry of a bed of roses. 

The big stems are dealt with thus. So far, so good. 

Look at the bush again. It has a lot of tall branches, 

130 



ROSE PRUNING 



131 



either erect or jutting out sideways, and these are stouter 
and healthier in their lower portions than in their upper 
lengths. The thin branch-tops may be dryish, or weakly, 
or they may be putting forth attractive tufts of spring foliage, 




An Old Tree before being Thinned Out. 

with bud-shoots in embryo, but, in any case, they are worth- 
less. The flowers they will carry if left alone will be mere 
travesties of the right sort of roses. So pruning has to be 
begun. The removal of stout stems, in which the grower 
has already indulged, has been thinning out ; he has not 



132 ROSE GARDENING 

commenced to prune. Is the tree of a nice shape, and of 
the size required ? If so, cut the thin branches oft to within 
four or six eyes of the main bough from which the whole 
branch springs. 

A poor dwarf Hybrid Perpetual, on the contrary, must 
be more encouraged to become taller, broader, and stronger. 
And how does the clever gardener encourage it ? By sparing 
the knife ? Not at all. That would be ' spoiling the child.' 

No, he cuts the secondary branches down to within one, 
or two, eyes of the main stems, and considerably shortens 
the main stems themselves. Indeed he may cut them so far 
down that the tree becomes just a tuft of sticks a few inches 
off the soil. New strong shoots will spring then out from the 
junction of briar-stock and rose. And these new stems will 
prove taller, even in one season, than the old tree was. A 
weak rose-tree always requires hard cutting and pruning. 

It is also a fact that, to obtain roses of prize quality, rosarians 
of note always cut trees nearly to their base ; but that would 
be a mistake where trees are grown for garden decoration, 
or to give plenty of blossom for gathering. A well-shaped 
Hybrid Perpetual bush does quite finely enough if the stems 
are thinned out, and the minor branches reduced in number, 
if too many, then tipped, or cut back as advised, to within 
four or six inches of the wood that gives them birth. If a 
tree is too tall, the stems that are left, from which the branches 
grow, should be made of uniform height, so as to suit the 
arrangement of the bed or border. If not too tall they need 
be only tipped. 

Some Hybrid Perpetual roses maintain a lovely floral show 
if only thinned out and tipped ; the Duke of Edinburgh is 
one variety, and this chapter closes with a list of some other 
varieties that object to hard pruning. 

Hybrid Tea roses, after being thinned out as to stems, 
and then thinned out as to secondary branches, should be 
shortened far enough to get rid of the leafy shoots that are 
trying to make flower-shoots. Roses borne on the early 
growth would be mere rubbish. The pruner should pinch 



ROSE PRUNING 133 

branches gently, to find out where the vigorous stalk ends 
and the feeble top-growth begins ; then cut back to just 
above a promising eye. 

Pruning is always done just close above an eye, with a nice 
slanting cut. If the cut is a clean one, leaving no snag, I 
do not think it is of consequence if it is made with knife or 
secateurs. Some growers sneer at secateur pruning ; yet 
I have known famous cultivators use secateurs in preference, 
and the tool is certainly safer than a knife in the hands of 
an inexperienced worker. 

When choosing an eye to cut back to, let it be one that 
is on the side where a new young branch is desired. The 
old law says, ' Let it be an eye pointing outwards.' But I 
often find that an ugly shaped tree, with gaps in it, can be 
made symmetrical by encouraging a new branch to slant 
across the tree, even inwards. Tea roses, thinned out and 
simply tipped, do well. But large old bushes are not always 
wanted. Dwarf trees in beds should be pruned annually 
into correct size and shape. A weak Tea rose will not 
flourish unless cut nearly down, that stronger growth may 
have a chance to come from the best stems, or even from 
the base. 

Very healthy rose trees can be trained out to espalier 
supports, some of the branches bent low, some stretched 
horizontally, to save sacrificing them, by giving them a place 
each in which they can develop without overcrowding the 
rest. 

Climbing roses, generally speaking, only need tipping, and 
training so that the stems do not incommode each other. 
However, it is often advisable to remove whole portions of 
old climbers, so that the younger portions may receive the 
whole of the sustenance from the roots. 

The warm wall climbers are the first to prune, in March ; 
then climbers on walls of other aspects, except the coldest, 
which may better wait till April ; then Hybrid Perpetuals, 
then Hybrid Teas, Hybrid Pemetianas, Chinas, Hybrid Chinas, 
etc. Finally the Teas, Dwarf Polyanthas may be done either 



134 ROSE GARDENING 

in March or April ; those in sunny spots will be active early, 
so should receive attention. Roses planted in autumn require 
strong pruning. 

Hybrid Perpetual roses that are so vigorous as to be a 
nuisance in their particular positions, can be cut down almost 
to the soil. I treated a majestic J. B. Clark so every second 
year ; the first year following a pruning it formed a wonderful 
bush ; the second year it had once again become a many- 
stemmed bush, twelve feet high. 

Bourbon, and Hybrid Bourbon roses give their blossoms 
on the branches that spring from two or three year old boughs, 
so it is always essential to leave some of this older wood, or 
there will be no flowers. 

Rambler roses may have all the old wood cut away after 
it has bloomed, and the young shoots nailed or tied into 
place ; or they can be left to send out new growth from old 
boughs, after bending these down, or stretching them out 
horizontally. Wichuraiana roses may also be treated either 
way. 

China roses, and Dwarf Polyanthas, only want thinning 
out, relieving of the too numerous small twigs and shoots, 
and tipping of each shoot. 

Standard rose pruning must be done by method, guided 
by the shape of the special tree itself (see Chapter X). 
Superfluous branches should always be done away with. 

The strong annual growths of Rugosas, or Japanese roses, 
may be either left, and tipped, trained out horizontally, or 
pegged down, or cut back half, or two-thirds, their length. 
The bushes may be cut down to the ground nearly, to reduce 
them. Hybrid Sweet Briar roses, not being quite so robust, 
should be treated a little more sparingly. The two buff 
yellow varieties. Lord and Lady Penzance, being the most 
slow of growth, must not be pruned severely. 

When making an old-world garden, in which roses are 
wished to form huge bushes, it is folly to prune them hard ; 
the trees must grow almost as they will for two or three years, 
except for being kept clear in their centres. 



ROSE PRUNING 



135 



Banksian roses must be tipped, and the coarsest wood 
cut out, directly they have bloomed, then not be touched 
any more with the knife, or there will not be any flowers 
the next season. Climbers planted in autumn are mostly 
cut down in March. This is not the waste of time it seems, 
for their growth will be more rapid than if the old tall 
stems were left on. 

Moss roses, and the old Cabbage, should be pruned hard, 
but not cut down. 





An Old Tree Well Thinned 
Out. 



An Old Tree Cut Down. 



Summer pruning, namely cutting trees back after they have 
bloomed in summer, is advisable for all that will flower again 
in autumn. When roses are gathered lavishly for vases, 
or gifts, plenty of the wood being taken, no summer pruning 
is required. This fact demonstrates the exact kind of pruning 
that is correct in summer ; it must not be the cutting far 
back of the spring pruning. Fortune's Yellow is a lovely 
old-fashioned rose that ought to be cut a very little directly 
it has flowered, and not any more in spring. 



136 



ROSE GARDENING 



The following roses are to be pruned with great circum- 
spection, as hard cutting means that for season after season 
they will make growth but not give a flower. 



Duke of Edinburgh. 

Charles Lefebvre. 

Madame Jules Gravereaux. 

GusTAVE R£gis. 

Her Majesty. 

Prince Camille de Rohan. 

Gruss an Teplitz. 

Margaret Dickson. 

Abel Carri]e;re. 

Sir Rowland Hill. 

Earl of Dufferin. 

Xavier Olibo. 

Madame Gabrielle Luizet. 

Dupuy Jamain. 



Hugh Dickson. 

John Hopper. 

Anna Olivier. 

Hom^re. 

G. Nabonnand. 

Maman Cochet. 

Safrano. 

Grace Darling. 

Papa Gontier. 

Viscountess Folkestone. 

Bardou Job. 

Madame Lambard. 

Aglaia. 



CHAPTER XXII 
DISBUDDING AND FEEDING ROSES 

' Spying a rose-bud on a tree, I cried, 
" Ah, thou shalt ope within my bower ! 
Lonely this garden ; here thou shalt not hide." 
But from each bud bursts not a perfect flower ! 
Some warped condition did the petals close ; 
My bud ne'er opened to a perfect rose.' 

I PUT disbudding first in the title of this chapter because, 
no matter how good the diet of rose trees, there are very few 
that will give fine blooms unless the number of buds is limited. 
I am speaking, of course, of the larger-flowering kinds, not 
of any that yield large trusses of small flowers. 

Whether such a rose as American Rambler, or as Dorothy 
Perkins, should be disbudded, is a question on which opinions 
differ. Even scientists, I gather, are at variance upon it. The 
best course to pursue is to treat some trees one way, some 
the other. There is great beauty in a pointed, or pyramidal, 
cluster of distinctly set blossoms ; there is a lovely prodigal 
effect about a truss so packed with blooms that many are 
unable to open till some have flowered, faded, and fallen, 
or been snipped off as dead. And this shedding, by nature 
or art, of the dead individuals, not only makes the rose look 
excellent, but prolongs the season of the tree's attractiveness. 

Large roses always need disbudding, except those that 
are so wise as to give but one bud to a shoot. Dora van Tets 
is usually admirable in this style, though I have known her 
unduly lavish. 

The buds that should be removed are superfluous ones, 

137 



13S 



ROSE GARDENING 



warped, or malformed ones, and grub-eaten ones. Two or 
three buds on one stem should be reduced to one. Now and 
then a long stem bears a second bud far down it, in addition 
to a single one at its top, and this distant brother may be 
left on, to look charming when the elder has been gathered ; 
unless, of course, extra fine flowers are the grower's object. 
It is in vain to try to persuade some old gardeners to disbud. 
How tired I have become of the reiterated reply — ' For my 
part, I like roses to grow naturally.' 

Roses don't. We prune. And we have a race of roses that 

are wholly made by 
artists, as tools of 
the Most High. So 
the obstinate old 
gardener ought to 
bring dog-roses from 
the hedges into his 
beds and borders if 
he really prefers 
a rose that grows 
naturally. 

Having to open 
too many buds ex- 
hausts a tree, as well 
as results in a ple- 
thora of miserable 
flowers, and a dearth 
of creditable ones. 
Disbudding should be done when the buds are just visible, 
tiny green objects only, set in the hearts of shoots. Every 
day they all live the one that is to reign alone ultimately 
is being impoverished. The best bud should be left ; it is 
usually the middle one, if there are three or more, and the 
highest up. 

Removing malformed buds is a task that calls for doing all 
summer ; but it begins when the first sort of disbudding 
takes place, as it is essential to ascertain that the bud left 




Malformed Bud. 



DISBUDDING AND FEEDING ROSES 139 

is not warped, as some of the biggest, and most promising, 
at first glance, are apt to be. 

Buds are often twisted, sometimes abnormally swollen, or 
rock-hard. Then there are buds that maggots pierce, or 
earwigs nibble ; buds too that go black in the stem, and would 
soon drop off ; buds that are so covered by green-fly as to be 
ruined. Later in the season there are mildewy buds. The 




Green-Centred Bud. 



One-Sided Bud. 



rose tender has to be constantly on the prowl, disbudding 
as well as deterring, catching, or poisoning the foes of the 
rose. 

It is inspiriting to see how a bud will grow after the others 
that were close are taken away. 

Feeding roses, after the manure before planting, and the 
valuable mulches to which attention has already been drawn, 
should never be done with only one kind of food or stimu- 



140 



ROSE GARDENING 



lant ; just as a boy or girl, to be healthy, must not be brought 
up on one form of food alone. 

I give many good recipes here, so that the inexperienced 
gardener can try experiments, after considering carefully what 
his special ground is likely to require. My own predilection 




One Bud too Many. 

1/ 





A Good Rose-Bud Weakened 

BY One that should have 

BEEN Removed. 



Two Buds too Many. 



is for Tonk's Manure, which is known and respected all over 
the world, yet one year I relied chiefly on Hop Manure, when 
the soil seemed to need getting into a pleasanter crumbly 
texture, and another season I applied a great deal of Multiple 
Fertiliser. I have no reason for naming patent manures, 
no interest in pushing any ; I merely speak of the products as 



DISBUDDING AND FEEDING ROSES 141 

I find them. Tonk's is made up by a settled prescription, 
and any agricultural chemist can supply it. 

It is a safe plan to use soot, either as dressing or liquid, 
every year, in addition to the other stronger foods that must 
not be over-used ; not with them, of course, but a few weeks 
after. It is also a fine idea to use lime-water once a year at 
least, in June, unless the garden is known to be too limed 
or chalky. Lime releases the chemical properties of animal 
manures, and so sends them down to plant roots in a digestible 
state. 

Liquid manures made with animal dung must always be 
used in such a diluted condition that the liquid is very pale 
in colour. Though roses are strong feeders they become 
rank, both as to foliage and flower, if too violently fed. A 
very weak liquid, often given, suits roses, while a strong 
dose of evil-smelling stuff does more harm than good. Chry- 
santhemums and dahlias thrive on strong liquid manures, 
but the rose does not, a fact that gardeners sometimes 
find it difficult to realize. Although the trees may seem to 
thrive on coarse feeding of this sort, for a few weeks after 
its application, they may later change colour, produce too 
much sappy stem, go all to leaf, give green-centred buds, 
yellow, and collapse altogether. 

Manures must invariably be applied when the ground has 
been thoroughly wetted, by rain or the can, and only to trees 
that are in health. To attempt to cure a sick rose by feeding it 
up with any sort of manure, is to determine its speedy end. 
A rose that is merely weak can be given a stimulating food 
tonic, of course, but not an invalid rose. 

List of Manures for Roses. 
No. I. Tonk's Manure. 

Superphosphate of lime (mineral), 48 lb. 

Kainit, 40 lb. 

Sulphate of magnesia, 81 lb. 



142 ROSE GARDENING 

Sulphate of iron, 4 lb. 

Sulphate of lime (gypsum), 32 lb. 
Mix, and crush, then apply, 4 ounces to a square yard 
(a plot 3 yards square). This manure should only be given 
once in a season, March being the best month. It can be 
bought ready mixed, by the 7 lb., or larger quantities, up 
to a hundredweight. 

No. 2. A Good Stimulant. 
Superphosphate of lime, ^ ounce. 
Sulphate of iron, I ounce. 
Sulphate of ammonia, ^ ounce. 
Dissolve in 2 gallons of water. Give 2 gallons of this solu- 
tion to each tree, every fifteen days, or less often, after buds 
are set, until autumn. 

No. 3. An After-Pruning Manure. 
Mixed farmyard manure, that has lain in a heap out of 
doors all winter, and been turned occasionally. Gently 
remove some soil above the roots, in a ring a foot wide, 
6 inches distant from the stem of a rose tree. Fill up with 
the manure, slightly press it in, and cover with a little of the 
removed soil. 

No. 4. Peruvian Guano. 

Peruvian Guano. 4 ounces to 2 gallons of water. Give 
a gallon to a tree when buds begin to form. Repeat each 
fortnight until the tree is flowering fully. 

No. 5. Peruvian Guano. 

2\ ounces for each tree, scattered round it, in April, and 
hoed into surface soil. 

No. 6. For Backward Roses. 

Mix 3 parts of superphosphate of lime, i part of sulphate 
of potash, I part of sulphate of ammonia, if parts of nitrate 
of soda, I part of sulphate of iron. Scatter i ounce, for 2 
feet, round each tree, in May or June, 



DISBUDDING AND FEEDING ROSES 143 

No. 7. Standen's Manure. 

Scatter | ounce on a square of 4 yards, fork lightly in, 
in April. 

No. 8. For Light Soil. 

Nitrate of Potash, | ounce. Dissolve in i gallon of water, 
and water each tree with this once a week during the flowering 
season. 

No. 9. Multiple Fertiliser. 

Scatter i heaped tablespoonful round each tree, lightly 
prick into surface soil, every fortnight after buds form, till 
flowers are over. 

No. 10. To Prevent Disease. 

Mix I" ounce of sulphate of iron with as much dry sand, 
and scatter an even sprinkling over the ground round each 
tree, in May and September. Water it in. This generally 
renders trees almost immune from fungoid diseases. 

No. II. Lime Watering. 

Dissolve a cupful of freshly slaked lime in 2 gallons of water. 
Apply all over the soil of the rose-bed, once or twice a year, 
allowing 2 gallons to each tree. The stems and foliage must 
not be wetted. 

No. 12. Guano. 

Dissolve 12 lb. in 2| gallons of water, and use this by 
putting 2 ounces of the liquid into 5 gallons of water. Allow 
f gallon to a tree. 

No. 13. Liquid Cow-manure. 

Weigh the manure, and dilute with 4 times its weight of 
water. 

No. 14. Liquid Horse-manure. 

Weigh the droppings, and allow 3 times the weight of 
water. 

No. 15. Pig Manure. 

Make a garden heap of equal portions of pig manure and 



144 ROSE GARDENING 

dry soil ; waste soil from turned-out pot plants will do well. 
Use, after some weeks, to mulch roses, in light soil. 

No. i6. An Excellent Quick-acting Manure. 

Superphosphate of lime, 2 parts. 

Muriate of potash, i part. 

Nitrate of soda, | part. 

Bone flour, i part. 
Mix, apply just under the soil, at rate of 2 ounces to a tree. 
Apply first when buds form, and again at midsummer, omitting 
the bone flour. Can be repeated at the end of the flowering 
season, to strengthen the trees for another year. 

No. 17. Bone Meal. 

3 ounces to the square yard (a square made of 3 yards 
each way), lightly hoed in, once, any time in autumn or 
early winter. 

No. 18. Clay's Fertilizer. 

I ounce to 2 gallons of water, once a week from April to 
September. 

No. 19. Clay's Fertilizer Liquid. 

Dissolve I ounce in 2 gallons of water. Use once or twice 
a week all summer. 

No. 20. Soot Water. 
Soak I lb. of soot in 10 gallons of water, for three days 
or longer. 

No. 21. Dry Soot. 

Make a mulch half an inch thick. 

No. 22. Pig Manure for Banksian Roses. 
Fork in a spadeful to each yard of the top soil, each March 
and October. 

No. 23. For Chalky Soil. 
Apply superphosphate of lime as a surface dressing, each 
spring, 2 ounces to a square yard. 



DISBUDDING AND FEEDING ROSES 145 

No. 24. Fertilizer for Chalky Soil. 

Saltpetre, ^ ounce. 
Phosphate of potash, ^ ounce. 
Dissolve in a gallon of water. Apply each May and July. 

No. 25. Basic Slag. 

Place at the bottom of the trench cut for manuring, at 
the rate of ^ lb. to 2 yards. 



K 



CHAPTER XXIII 
GRAFTING ROSES 

' The rose looks fair, but fairest it, we deem, 
For that sweet odour which doth in it Hve.' 

FEW are the owners of pleasure gardens who are anxious 
to graft roses, yet propagation by grafting is a subject 
that cannot be omitted from a book on Rose Growing. 

Long, long ago, when grafting was more in favour than 
now, an eminent authority stated that the operation may 
be performed in as many ways as a broken whip, or stick, 
can be spliced ; the only thing required for success being 
a good fit, and that the stock and the scion be something 
nearly alike in size. 

The stock is the branch, or stem, on which the graft is made ; 
the scion is the piece that is grafted in, a piece taken from 
some rose. 

An intelligent schoolboy, after pondering this, would be 
quite capable of making a new rose tree by grafting. 

In cutting the wood of either the stock or the scion it must 
not be hacked or bruised ; the right season is said to begin 
in September and end in March, but the likeliest time is about 
the end of February, weather being normal, when the buds 
of the trees are beginning to swell. 

This is known as spring grafting ; the French nurserymen 
are adepts at it, and frequently flower the trees the same 
season so well as to gain prizes for the blooms. 

The scion to be inserted is a long pointed wedge, or a slice ; 
cuts to receive scions have to be made to resemble them 
closely, but slightly larger, in the side of the branch, or stem, 
of the stock. When the scion is inserted in the slit in the 

146 



GRAFTING ROSES 147 

stock, the two are bound firmly together by tape, or raffia, 
then covered by grafting wax, which is a mixture of beeswax 
and resin softened by tallow sufficiently to enable it to be 
applied like paint. Some growers use clay, others a starch 
paste, covered with moss or wool to keep it from being washed 
away. This last is really a safe method, as it is so easy to 
get rid of the coverings when the splice has succeeded ; whereas 
removing grafting wax, or clay, is a somewhat delicate and 
hazardous operation. 

When grafting is done low down on a stem below earth, 
no grafting wax or other sticky material is needed. Nor is 
any required for root grafting. 

Bud-grafting consists of taking a small piece of rose branch 
with a ' bud ' in it, cutting it with a long point, and inserting 
it in a slit cut partly through the ' wood ' of the stock's branch, 
or main stem, folding the sides of the cut bark over it as far 
as possible, binding them up, and painting lightly with grafting 
wax to exclude the air. 

Root grafting is easy, though so seldom practised by amateurs. 
Search the garden in October for a rose tree that is sending 
up a strong sucker which is a shoot from the root of the briar. 
Fork away some soil, cut through the briar root as so to 
detach the sucker with a good bit of it attached. Replant 
the rose at once and water it in. Pot the sucker, in loam, 
leaf mould, and a little very old manure, with some sand ; 
house it in a greenhouse, or frame, or sink the pot in a cinder 
bed by a warm wall out of doors. Keep the sucker growing 
till February is advanced, when turn it out of its pot, graft 
a rose scion on to its root, and plant out in rich soil. 

The following clear instructions on root grafting are from 
a journal of far past days. 

' Suckers in abundance may be found in all rose plantations ; 
dig them up with their roots, and when you have as many as 
you would like to make rose trees of, cut off the upper growth 
to within an inch of where it touched the ground ; select 
cuttings from such sorts as you are desirous of propagating, 
and take a seat in the house or arbour, or wherever it is most 



148 



ROSE GARDENING 



pleasant. Depend on this, that it matters very little how 
you fix the graft (scion) to the root, so that it is a fit, and 
the barks of both are close to each other. We verily believe 
that we grafted twenty different ways, and had not one in 
fifty miss. Fancy that your root, just below the surface, 
and your graft, being the same size, have broken by accident 
from each other, and that you have to mend them as you 



Pointed Scion Ready to Insert. 



Branch of Stock, with Slit 
Cut Ready for the Scion. 



would a fishing-rod ; cutting each of them sloping, so as 
to j5t each other exactly, and binding them neatly together 
is one person's mode of accomplishing it ; cutting one to a 
wedge shape, and slitting the other, and cutting the wood 
out to receive the wedge, would be another. The root, 
having nothing but the new substitute for its old stock to 
support, amply supplies the nourishment, and rapid growth 
is the consequence. All your work being tied, plant them 
in rich ground, with the grafting tie below the surface, and 
shade them from direct sun.' 

Many growers pot their stocks after they are grafted, and 
keep them in mild heat under glass. As to selecting suitable 
grafts, or scions, another old author gave sound advice : 

' Examine your shoots after pruning each tree in March ; 
select those which are finest, and place their thickest ends 
in a lump of clay that is moist and an inch deep ; pinch 
the clay tight round them, and then put the lump of clay 
in a pot full of earth, leaving the shoots out, until ready for 
use. At the end of each shoot there will probably be one 
or more buds open ; these must be carefully cut off from 



GRAFTING ROSES 149 

the shoot, or they will infallibly exhaust the others. Let 
the shoots remain for three weeks in an outhouse, or any place 
neither very dry nor very damp, where neither wind nor sun 
can come in contact with them.' When the scions begin to 
swell, the grafting wax or clay has to be removed, and there 
must be a loosening of the tying raffia. 

Grafting is the quickest method of rose propagation, for a 
stock grafted in early March may be a fine blooming tree by 
August. 



CHAPTER XXIV 
BUDDING ROSES 

* The rose is fairest when 'tis budding new ; 
The rose is sweetest washed by morning dew.' 

Sir Walter Scott. 

ROSE budding is simple to do, but exceedingly difficult 
to explain, except by demonstration. 

To bud we must possess briar stocks. These can be bought 
and planted in autumn, or winter, for budding the following 
July ; or raised from the hips, or red seed pods, to be found 
on the wild roses of our hedges. Late autumn is the time 
for this. The seeds have to be removed from the hips, rubbed 
between the hands with some damp sand, which removes an 
oiliness of the outer skin that would otherwise delay germi- 
nation, perhaps for a year. The seeds are then stored in damp 
sand until March, when they may be sown, two feet apart, 
an inch deep, in drills across the kitchen garden ground. 
The soil must not dry up. Then all that is necessary is to 
wait until the briars are large enough to turn into rose trees 
by budding them. 

Mature briar stocks, planted in November, will begin to 
shoot out in the following spring. The end of July, or the 
beginning of August, is the best budding time ; the weather 
should be moist and cloudy, but, as it is not possible to order 
the correct sort, a gardener combats injurious sunheat by 
rigging up some tiffany, or leafy branches, to poles set between 
the briars and the midday sun. After a thunderstorm is 
usually held to be a capital time for budding, as heavy rain 
has set the sap stirring. If there is a tiresome drought in 

150 



BUDDING ROSES 151 

July it is wise to give the briars a thorough soaking or two 
during the early part of the month. An old author says : 
' Budding should be performed in the evening, and on the south- 
west side of the shoot.' But either side will do ; indeed 
the modern way is to bud on the underneath of the branch ; 
it is more troublesome to do, but the sunshine cannot play 
on the place. The bud to be inserted is to be taken from a 
quite healthy tree, from a bough of the current year's growth. 
We generally say now ' from a bough that has borne a flower. ' 
Old practitioners said : ' The bud should be from a part of the 
tree that has never flowered, because the bud of a shoot that 
has once flowered becomes thereby weak and feeble.' 

The buds are to be found at the base of the stalks of leaves. 
They will be observable in all stages, but the smallest and 
the largest are unsuitable ; the medium ones, plump and 
juicy, should be taken. 

And how do we take them ? — Ah, that is the difficult 
matter to explain ! The scientific instructions run thus : 

' Great care is necessary in removing the bud. The operation 
is best performed by a thin-bladed knife, which should be 
inserted about three-quarters of an inch above the bud, and 
passing nearly midway through the wood of the shoot, come 
out again about three-quarters of an inch below it, the cut 
being as clean as possible. The portion of the bark in the 
centre of which the bud is situated is called the shield, and 
when removed as above described it contains a portion of 
wood. This is to be carefully removed.' I remember when 
I first read these directions, and set about looking for the 
' wood,' I expected to find a large piece ! The bit is very 
small. That was long, long ago ! 

The ancient mode of getting rid of the bit of wood was by 
drawing a hair, or thread of silk, through the whole, as cheese 
is cut by wire or string. The modern fashion is to remove 
it by the tip of the knife, or tear it gently away with the nails 
of the first finger and thumb. An expert budder will whisk 
out a dozen in less than a minute, without spoiling a bud. 
It is true that if the bud is in proper condition, neither too 



152 



ROSE GARDENING 



old nor too young, vigorous, not effete, it does come away 
readily. To quote another old authority : 

' You must now examine whether the incipient bud, or 
heart of the bud, has been dragged out with the wood, which 
is sometimes the case, and which can quite easily be seen 
on looking inside the bark, when there will be found a hole, 
if the heart of the bud is gone, perhaps not larger than a 
pin hole ; should this be the case it is useless, and will never 
grow. This has induced many to bud without removing the 
wood at all, and they will often take, or unite, quite well. 
. . . Nevertheless the danger is that the woody portion does 
not unite, and the bud branch is more easily blown out by the 
wind.' 

Before the bud is made ready the branch in which it is to 
be inserted must be prepared. 

The budding knife cuts a slit in the bark of that branch, 
underneath it, about an inch and a half long, and, preferably, 
within an inch of the base of the branch, because there it 



Branch Ready Cut to 
Receive Bud. 



Bud, Ready to Insert. 



will be strongest. About the middle of the slit a trans- 
verse cut is made. Budding knives used always to have a 
thin end to their handles, like a palette knife, often of ivory ; 
this was to use to raise the green bark of the slit, on both 
sides, acting also as a kind of slim wedge to hold the cut 
open while inserting the bud. 



BUDDING ROSES 153 

The bud is put in so that it peeps out of the sHt, yet is 
partly inserted on both sides, exactly against the transverse 
cut of the slit. Then a moistened strand of raffia, or wool, 
binds it in place. A piece of moss, or cotton-wool, is generally 
bound lightly over, but the ' nose ' of the bud should show. 
The wool should be damped daily, if dry weather ensues. 
The boughs of the briar stock used to be cut down low before 
the budding. This is not the practice now. They may be 
cut down at the beginning of November, but, so dangerous 
is it to shake the budded portions, that a shortening to about 
a foot is usually made to suffice. In March the trees are 
pruned, all the growth being removed so as to leave just one 
bud, or eye, on each branch above a budded part. 

If several buds are inserted, and take, in several branches 
of a briar, a fine tree is quickly obtained. Thus, several 
varieties of rose can be made to grow upon one tree, but this 
is a pretty freak, or pastime, only, and the best effects are 
gained otherwise. After the budded portion has grown, and 
gained two or three pairs of leaves, the tip of its shoot is 
nipped out. Whether a bud has taken or not can generally 
be ascertained in three weeks' time after budding ; if it 
has not, the bud will be black. 



CHAPTER XXV 
SOWING ROSES 

' " Ah, Rose, blessing men by thy beauty dower, 

Fall not, thy scented gift to us to spoil ! " 

" I fall, loving all men," replied the flower, 

" That I may feed fresh rose-buds from this soil." ' 

RAISING roses from seed is a fascinating pursuit, one 
of the chief merits of which is its economy. One 
obtains rose trees for nothing but the trouble. Other merits 
of the mode are that one loves them more than one loves 
bought trees, and it is within the realms of possibility that 
one may gain a marketable marvel. As a matter of fact, 
a few of the greatest triumphs in rose varieties have been 
raised by mere amateurs. Then the roses are on their own 
roots, so never throw up tiresome briar suckers. They grow 
luxuriantly when adult. 

It is good to beg hips from friends, as well as make use of 
those from one's own garden, in October. They should be 
stored in sand, indoors, until spring. In the third week of 
March they should be rubbed well in some sharp sand or 
grit, then sown, an inch apart, in properly drained large 
pots, using a compost, of equal parts of fresh turfy loam, and 
old hot-bed manure, with a quarter part of coarse silver sand. 
Half an inch of the compost, sifted, should cover in the seeds. 

The pots can be stood in the open, or in generally uncovered 
frames, and it is a great help to sink them to the rims in 
cinders, as then the compost will not dry up as quickly. 
The difficult item in the cultivation is just the maintaining 
the slight moisture in the compost that promotes germination, 

154 



SOWING ROSES 155 

then prevents its receiving any check. Drying up stops 
germination, usually destroys the seed germ, and also often 
destroys infantile sprouts when germination has taken place. 
Yet the moisture must be slight, not a swamp ; too wet soil 
turns sour, and then seeds are killed ; even if they are not, 
the seedlings will be mildewed off. Outdoor-stood pots will 
not be likely to take any harm, if properly drained, though 
it is best to protect them if rain continues persistently for 
twelve hours. 

It is probable that many seedlings will appear in May. 
When these are an inch high, or rather more, they should 
be tenderly lifted and potted separately, in three-inch or 
four-inch pots, care being taken not to break their roots. 
After potting them they are best kept in a closed frame for 
a few days ; then admit air by degrees, but shade them from 
hot sun. In a couple of weeks they can be exposed to full 
light and air. In six weeks they should be planted out (turned 
out of the pots with their balls of soil intact so that they do 
not know they are having a shift), in rich soil, and an open 
sunny situation. 

It is an excellent plan to take ' buds ' from them, in the 
following July or August, wherewith to bud briars ; this en- 
sures the survival of those seedling varieties whose merits 
have not yet been tested, even if the seedling trees them- 
selves do not live. Also the budded briars may be blos- 
soming rose trees before the seedlings are. 

The first winter is the dangerous time. The trees should 
be well trodden in, mulched with the very oldest manure, 
and have bracken-fern fronds heaped round them, and woven 
in and out their branches, to protect their hearts. 

Seed may also be sown in the open ground, in March, in 
drills filled with good compost ; in pans, or pots, too, in 
frames of cool greenhouses. I have succeeded in raising 
delicate roses — those from seeds of delicate varieties, such 
as Niphetos, and Marechal Niel, by treating the seeds just 
as those of half-hardy bedding flowers are treated in spring in 
hundreds of greenhouses, viz., by sowing them in boxes. 



156 ROSE GARDENING 

glass-covered, in the moderately-warmed glasshouses, and 
hardening them off with the bedding ' stuff.' 

Some gardeners use a propagator, or hotbed, to give bottom 
heat to pans of sown rose-seed. 

It is also a help, I am sure, to rub the seeds out of the dried 
hips before sowing them, but they must be sown instantly, 
not allowed to lie about exposed to the air. 

Seedling roses, raised altogether in pots (preferably placed 
singly, in 2-inch size) can be potted and re-potted, and 
wintered in cold frames. But the rose is actually a hardy 
subject, although some varieties are tender, so any over- 
coddling will prove disastrous. 

In order to grow seed of extra promise it is customary 
to plant a dozen or more roses in a bed or border close 
together, far from inferior kinds, and to choose those 
sorts for special qualities, such as colour, habit, free-blooming, 
cupped or pointed shape, early or late blossoming, evergreen 
foliage, or size. Bees will impregnate the flowers, by con- 
veying pollen from one to another, and seed of the hips will 
be more valuable than seed gleaned from ordinary mixed 
collections of roses. 



T 



CHAPTER XXVI 
RAISING ROSES FROM CUTTINGS 

• Riper months the perfect year disclose, 
And Flora cries, exulting, " See, my Rose ! " ' 

Mrs. Barbauld. 

HERE are several ways of growing roses from cuttings, 
as the following recipes will explain : — 

No. I. 

Find a nice open space, where the soil is good, and make 
a cutting-bed, turning it well for a depth of about 2 feet, 
without bringing the under soil to the top, mixing in the mean- 
while a considerable quantity of sharp sand, or road grit. 
Draw, and dig out, narrow trenches across the bed — trenches 
with one side perpendicular, one side slanted — and put two 
inches of coarse damped silver sand at the base of each trench. 
Find some well-ripened strong shoots, in October, that have 
borne flowers, and have young ' buds,' or eyes, showing at 
the axils of the leaves, which means where the leaf-stalks 
spring from a branch. Take cuttings about 8 or 9 inches 
long, using the lower portions of the chosen shoots, not the 
thin upper- wood portions, and making the cuts just below 
an eye, and so as to bring away a tiny scooped piece, called 
a heel, of the old wood with each — a fragment of the main 
stem, or stout bough, that the shoot grows from. 

Remove all leaves but two or three at the top of each 
cutting, but never remove the buds, or eyes, from the base 
of any leaves. 

Insert the cuttings against the perpendicular side of each 
trench, so that they are two-thirds buried when the trench 

157 



158 ROSE GARDENING 

is filled up. Place them at least 5 inches apart. Half fill 
in a trench at a time, tread it, to make the soil firm round 
the cuttings. Fill up the trench. There will be no need 
to water the cuttings. Cover their tops lightly with some 
fronds of bracken-fern, in November, or lay the utmost tops 
of well-feathered pea-faggots all over the ground. When the 
ground has been deluged by persistent or heavy storm rains, 
or softened by thaws, tread the cuttings firm again. 

No. 2. 

Take the cuttings as above, insert them in a bed made up 
in a cold frame. Use the glass lights only on cold nights, 
during days of excessive rainfalls, or in spells of severe 
frost and snow. 

No. 3. 

Insert cuttings in the open ground. Cover each with a 
glass jam jar, pressed an inch into the soil. Do not remove 
the jars till spring. 

No. 4. 

Insert cuttings in a 9-inch deep bed of good soil, in frame 
against a south wall. Water thoroughly. Put on the glass 
lights, and stretch tiffany shading over those. Lift the lights 
to spray, or lightly sprinkle, the foliage of the cuttings occa- 
sionally. Do not water or give air until it is obvious that 
the cuttings have taken, and are growing. 

No. 5. 

Take cuttings, in June, of half-ripened shoots. Each should 
have three or four eyes, and be cut below the axil of a leaf, 
or else be taken with a heel off the main branch, or stem. 
Remove only the bottom leaf, or leaves, not injuring their 
eyes. Prepare potfuls of a compost of equal parts of loam 
and coarse sand. The cuttings may go one in each pot of 
3-inch size, or five round the sides of a 6-inch size. Strew sand 
on the surface of the compost, rather quickly, that it may 
fall evenly, just powdering the soil, then dibble the cuttings in, 



RAISING ROSES FROM CUTTINGS 159 

which will carry some sand down to where the base of each 
cutting will rest. Water well. Stand the pots in a deep 
box, with glass lid. Place the box in a propagator, or on the 
hotbed of a vinery, cucumber house, or frame. 

The potting of cuttings must be done without injuring 
their roots, so must any removals from open ground. Perhaps 
the safest way of all is to strike each cutting in a small pot, 
as they can then be turned out without suffering any check. 
When they are pot-bound, that is, show roots protruding 
from the drainage holes of their pots, they are in need of a 
shift. But if the season is against their removal, they can 
be kept healthy for a time by standing the pots on a lot of 
rich soil, in a made frame-bed, or a box or pan ; the roots 
will enter this, and find sufficient sustenance. 



CHAPTER XXVII 
LAYERING ROSES 

' What is a Rose ? 
A cup of pure delight.' 

Old Play. 

LAYERING is a quick, and almost sure, way of propa- 
gating climbers, and the more vigorous roses. It is 
best done in July ; if not done until September or October, 
the layered shoots must be removed in spring, which wastes 
almost a season's growth. 

The Ramblers root with the greatest ease. Indeed, if 
layered in June the new young trees can often be planted 
in permanent quarters in October. 

After a bough has been bent so as to reach the soil about 
midway of a nicely ripened bough, the under part of this bough, 
just where it would crack if pressed, at the bend, is given a 
slit, quite half way through it, lengthwise. 

A dexterous twist or two with the fingers widens the 
slit ; damp sand is rubbed into the aperture, and the whole 
is pegged down, just at that place, into some very sandy soil. 
The pegs should be miniature crooks, of wood, or wire; 
large-sized hair-pins can be used, but wooden crooks are 
better. They should be long enough to be thrust rather 
deeply into the ground, or else thaws, rains, and winds, may 
uplift them, and ruin all the work. 

The layers must be kept watered in dry weather. 

When a layer is seen to be rooted, the branch should be 
cut away, between the layer and the parent tree, quite close 
to the former, which can then be lifted, and should show a 
nice tuft of roots. 

The old growth above the layer should be shortened one 
half. In the following spring the layered tree is treated 
as a newly planted climber, viz., pruned down within three 
or four eyes of the ground. 

160 




DUCHESS OF WELLINGTON .Yelloiu) 



HUGH DICKSON {Crhiison\ 



CHAPTER XXVIII 
SUPPORTING ROSES 

' Flinging thy boughs to every breeze. 
Prodigal of thy arts to please.' 

THE ingenious mind can invent hundreds of fashions of 
supporting roses, non-cUmbers, semi-chmbers, and ram- 
pant chmbers. The use of chains slung between pillars 
has been ridiculed, and some critics have waxed indignant 
at this idea of associating iron links with the dainty flower. 
To my mind, that incongruous blend provides the romance, 
the pathos, the poesy ; just as the rugged ruined towers 
give charm, by contrast, to the waving wallflowers, snap- 
dragons, and toadflax, and pendulous dancing harebells that 
subsist in their crevices. 

Only let the pillars be of slim iron too, very tall, and the 
chains painted to match, then a beautiful effect is certain. 
The way to appreciate it best is to visit the spot at sunset 
time, and stand between those swaying garlands, to see them 
against a roseate sky, all massed, as they will be, with blossoms 
of every warm hue. Still, ropes are an efficient substitute 
for chains, and suit pillars of rustic wood, which chains do 
not ; also, the rose tendrils delight in clinging to them. 

It will be necessary to repaint both pillars and chains 
every year. 

Espalier training is the finest possible way of showing off 
strong dwarf roses, or semi-climbers ; the supports for these, 
just as the iron pillars, and chains if of metal — wire or 
iron — must be coated with paint ; otherwise they will be 
too hot in summer, and too cold in winter for the rose shoots 
to prosper as they should. 

161 L 



i62 ROSE GARDENING 

On espaliers the branches can be arranged each in its best 
place, and there is total prevention of that dashing about 
in winds that interferes so seriously with the rose's happiness. 

Pillars have already been dealt with, but the three-cornered 
brick pillar must be especially advocated. It is made by 
setting three great bricks to form a triangle, then building 
on these up to the desired height, cementing them by their 
corners. 

Round pillars of brick have a softer effect in the landscape 
than the square shape more ordinarily seen ; they can be 
made as large round as a factory chimney, or slender as a 
drain-pipe (odious examples, for which I apologize). Of 
course round pillar supports can be quickly and cheaply 
made out of wire netting, rolled thin round gas-piping poles. 

A colossal cross of rustic wood — say silver birch, with the 
bark on — will win the gardener great praise when it is climbed 
by some rich velvety red rose, such as J. B. Clark, or Climbing 
Liberty. The point to be remembered is that a cross is only 
successful when it is of great height, so that the festoons of 
roses hang elegantly from the cross-beams. 

I once saw a lawn edged round by semi-climbing roses, 
each tree of which had a monster ' V ' of green painted wood 
to support it : the ' V's ' were near enough for their slanting 
top sides to almost meet. 

Then there is the Maypole style of training, one giant 
pole, and cords or wire to represent the garland-covered 
ropes which stretch from the summit to the ground, on all 
sides. 

Ropes can be made weatherproof by dipping them in 
creosote, or Stockholm tar ; they last long, however, in their 
natural state, and are much pleasanter and safer for the 
young shoots of roses. 

Beautiful arbours are quickly made in tent shapes, by 
vigorous climbing roses trained up the poles and guy-ropes, 
and woven and tied, to simulate roofing. 

The Japanese flat-topped umbrella, copied in wire, with 
a slim iron pillar for handle, makes a remarkable garden feature 



SUPPORTING ROSES 163 

when rose climbed. The ordinary domed umbrella shape 
may be copied on a much larger scale than the ones usually 
employed for the support of specimen weeping rose-trees. 

A colonnade of arches, to walk under, is always charming, 
but a row of arches, not to be walked under, set with sides 
touching, flush with an ugly wall, or paling, two feet or more 
from it, will become, in a couple of years, a series of lovely 
arbours, in any one of which chairs can be set, or rustic benches 
permanently fixed. 

Difficulty is often experienced in fixing roses to walls. 
This is cured by studding the wall with the kind of galvanized 
iron staples that have an eyelet hole in the top of each. Wire 
threaded through those eyelet holes, stretched from one to 
another, at yard distances and at various heights up the wall, 
will provide the trees with something firm to which they can 
be tied to defy the gales. 

A lawn may be bordered well by a continuous line of half 
hoops, or miniature arches, on which strong Hybrid Teas 
will give a famous show. 

As to stakes for rose trees, the square-cut deal ones, painted 
green, are no doubt best. Bamboo rods are convenient and 
cleanly, especially if the open tops are plugged, and each 
has driven into the plugging material one of the small screw 
rings sold for attaching to the backs of picture-frames to hold 
wire, or string. Bamboos are rather terribly noticeable in 
a bed or border, but this is prevented by painting them green. 



CHAPTER XXIX 
WATERING ROSES 

' There is no rose without a thorn ; 
May it not also be, 
There is no thorn without a rose, 
If we had eyes to see ? ' 

Mary Hampden. 

SHOULD roses be watered during dry summers ? 
Undoubtedly, when the drought is threatening their 
health. It is better to wait till then. To water them to 
prevent the ill effects of a broiling exhausting summer heat 
(if rain happens occasionally, but not, as the gardener knows, 
enough), is little use ; because undue sunheat will open the 
buds too soon, do what one will, making them into poor 
flowers ; and buckets of water given to the roots would not 
avail against this trouble. But if the trees themselves are 
unsatisfactory, if foliage, and especially young shoots, droop 
and look miserable, give a pailful of water — two preferably, 
if the labour is not too great — to each tree after sundown. 
Next night apply some weak liquid manure, of the animal 
type. In a few weeks' time, after rain or another watering, 
give some chemical liquid. 

After watering has been begun it has to be kept up, but 
that does not mean every evening ; twice a week is ample, 
or twice in ten days if the waterings are followed next night 
by liquid foods, soot water being extremely suitable alternately 
with others. 

The great evil to avoid is little-and-often-watering, for this 
brings the rootlets to the surface always in search of more, 
and then they become sun-baked, possibly killed. The 

164 



WATERING ROSES 165 

strongest trees will not themselves be destroyed by the loss 
of rootlets, yet they will soon show that their stamina is 
materially lessened. 

Water should be applied slowly, a quarter pailful at a time ; 
three minutes' pause, another quarter pailful, and so on. 
Flinging a heavy volume of water on to the soil is not the 
proper method, it will harden the ground, and wastes most 
of the supply, which runs off, instead of soaking in. 

The roses that suffer most, as a rule, from lack of water 
are wall climbers, especially those on east aspects, as rain- 
falls seldom reach even their most extended roots. 

Overhead waterings at the close of blazing, or still sultry 
days, have saved many a tree. The buds of all but dark 
roses can be safely wetted with rain-water ; the dark ones 
are likely to be spotted ; yet they, too, may escape injury 
if the sun is really off the garden, and, as they are not able 
to open favourably without some outer moisture, when dews 
are absent it is wise to try to imitate heavenly yields. Tap 
water generally disfigures rose petals of the crimson sorts, 
whether they are furled or open. 

It is better not to water at all, in a drought, than to do 
so once, and then weary of the task, and so let the trees go 
dry again. 

Watering may be done in really early mornings, before the 
sun has any power, but syringings, and overhead sprinklings 
are perilous except in the evenings. 



CHAPTER XXX 
PROTECTING ROSES 

'Who, that has reason, and his smell, 
Would not among roses and jasmine dwell ? ' 

Cowley. 

I AM no advocate for protecting roses at all, unless the 
garden is what may be termed a disastrous one. Having 
left all roses to their fate in all winters, in the Midlands, 
and other parts of England, I am convinced that the hardier 
one can make one's trees, the more they do for one, and 
the likelier they are not to succumb in summer. It seems 
as though summer tried trees worse than do severe winters, 
but, of course, for the danger time we must point to the 
east wind spells of March and April. When the sap is rising, 
and leaf forming has begun, then the blasts chill most dan- 
gerously, and the drain on the trees' resources is greatest. 

Some gardeners bandage up their Tea roses every November, 
and unwrap them in March, or April, because they cannot 
well keep them any longer covered, owing to the weak growth 
that would ensue. The branches would sprout into premature 
leafage, and buds would develop too early. A lemon-scented 
verbena, or a myrtle, can be left swathed until May has 
ushered in quite safe weather, but a rose cannot. That is 
a great argument against protecting roses at all. 

Yet there are bleak Scottish and North Country gardens, 
cold damp valley gardens elsewhere, in which roses so fre- 
quently die off during bad winters, that garden-owners have 
to do something to fight against the ravages of cold. 

The best protecting substance is bracken-fern, because it 
does not retain wet, or turn mouldy, as does straw ; it is 

166 



PROTECTING ROSES 167 

so light that it does no harm to the most fragile boughs, 
and it is not unsightly. Best of all its merits, is the fact 
that it never harbours insects ; at least that is my experience. 
There is a certain wood-recalling, aromatic, healthy smell 
about the fronds that pests dislike, and avoid. A chance 
snail may take up his abode in bracken-fern, but snails really 
do no mischief to the rose. 

Dwellers near woods, or common-land on the outskirts of 
them, can go forth and glean bracken fronds by the hundred 
in autumn. The stuff had better lie in a sunny room till it is 
dry enough, then be moulded by handfuls round the lower 
stems of the roses, and pressed between the branches. A 
few loose ties of string, from branch to branch, will prevent 
winds from blowing the fern away. A heap may be built 
over the roots, drawn up to join the stem covering. In any 
extra windy spot, the fern can be perfectly secured by throwing 
a length of rot-proof fish-netting right over tree and all, 
and pegging its sides and ends down into the soil. The 
arrangement must be left loose and airy ; no tight casing should 
be allowed. 

Gorse branches answer well, but are more clumsy. Heather 
has a troublesome trick of breaking tender shoots, by being 
blown against them, still it is an excellent dry, healthy 
material. Straw is least good. If used, it ought to be often 
changed — three or four times during winter, at least. 

Now and then roses are in need of screening from draughts. 
I remember one case, when a row of newly planted sweet- 
pea plants, in April, were cut off at just a yard of the end of 
the row, owing to the way the east wind cut round a corner. 
A rose-bush there had died, for some reason for which the owner 
could not account, until those sweet peas afforded an object 
lesson. Instead of swathing another tree there into a 
mummy next winter, it proved quite sufficient to make a 
screen at the end of where the sweet-pea row had begun — a 
screen concocted in a quarter of an hour, by tying and nailing 
gorse boughs upon a wooden frame, that was actually 
a disused clothes-airer from a nursery. The legs of the 



i68 



ROSE GARDENING 



clothes-horse were sunk six inches in the soil, a stake tied 
to the main wooden upright, at the bend, and there was a 
perfectly strong serviceable screen. The rose tree was much 




Sheltering Screen of Wood and Gorse Boughs. 



happier in the angle of this screen than it would have been 
partly smothered in any kind of covering. 

A November mulch, of dry leaf mould, or loam mixed with 
cocoa-nut fibre refuse, or swept-up oak leaves, or pine-needles, 
or beechmast, or spent hops, or hop manure with crushed 
brick rubble, or mortar, are all suitable methods of keeping 
the effect of frosts off the ground above rose roots. 

The bracken-fern, gorse, or heather style of protection for 
branches is often necessary for the heads of standard trees, 
and string will be needed to retain any of them lightly among 
the boughs. 

When December finds some rose tree in full bud, or 
bearing, how one longs to safeguard it against the bitter 
weather that one knows is near. How precious those roses 
would be if temperature would but let them have a 
chance to open unspoilt ! Well, all one requires is a hand- 
light large enough to pop over the entire tree, a miniature span- 
roof greenhouse sort of thing, with windows to admit a little 



PROTECTING ROSES 169 

air just above the summit of the enclosed tree. Surely 
carpenters and glaziers would build such a handlight 
at no stupendous cost ? Beneath the glass, with some venti- 
lation arranged for, the roses might be gathered unharmed 
at Christmas. 

When roses are grown for shows they are protected by 
special shades, as a former chapter has explained. Drip 
must not lie on them, nor sun smite wet petals, nor fierce 
heat scorch and fade. 

Many a rosery would do better if a shrubbery were built 
round it, far enough away. But of course many a rosery 
is rendered stuffy, and weakening for the trees, by being 
too much enclosed by shrubs or trees. An espalier fencing, 
rose covered, is generally a capital and a lovely means of 
giving additional protection to a rose-garden. 



CHAPTER XXXI 
CURING THE ILLS OF ROSES 

' If in a rose there lurks a hidden worm, 
Would it be just from roses all to turn ? 
If in life's web we trace a thread of gray, 
Wish we our life itself to cast away ? 
Though worms spoil blossoms, and gold has alloy. 
Gray grief, for Man, improves the worth of joy.' 

THE following recipes are offered for the gardener to 
experiment as to which he thinks best for the specific 
ill it is wished to prevent or cure. Different temperatures, 
climates, sites, etc., are the causes of roses in some circum- 
stances being benefited greatly by treatments that scarcely 
help roses in opposite, or very dissimilar, conditions. Many 
are strong remedies — such as are needed for strong evils ; 
therefore the gardener who employs them in any fashion 
contrary to those instructions that accompany them, does 
so at his rose's peril. Great exactness, and scrupulous cleanli- 
ness and care, are necessary in doctoring plants with powerful 
chemicals. 

No. I. 

A Wash to Remedy Mildew, and Destroy Insect Pests. 
Dissolve a pound of Cyllin Soap in a pint and a half of hot 
water. Place a small teacupful of this in each gallon of 
soft water, and syringe the trees. 

No. 2. 

For Curing Mildew, or other Fungoid Diseases. 
Add 6 pints of water to 8 liquid ounces of strong ammonia. 
Add three-quarters of an ounce of copper carbonate, and 

170 



CURING THE ILLS OF ROSES 171 

add water till the whole consists of 5 gallons. Apply through 
a spraying syringe. 

No. 3- 

A Cure for Canker of the Stem. 
Scrape away the affected wood with great care ; paint 
the wound with a gill of soft water in which a thimbleful 
of spirits of turpentine has been dissolved ; then cover im- 
mediately with fresh cow-dung, binding it on with canvas, 
and leaving this to rot away. 

No. 4. 
To Clear Worms from Pot Roses. 
Dissolve an ounce of mustard in a gallon of water, stir, and 
water the trees once with this, standing the pots on bricks, 
after slightly loosening the drainage crocks from the base, 
that worms may be able to make their exit either below 
or above. 

No. 5- 
To Check Mildew. 
Dissolve three-quarters of a pound of Calvert's Carbolic 
Soap in 3I quarts of soft water. Syringe the trees with a 
wash made of a sixth part of this, in rain water. 

No. 6. 
For Curing Orange Rust and Leaf Spot. 
Half an ounce of potassium sulphide in a gallon of water. 
Wash, and spray the affected foliage. 

No. 7. 
To Cure Rose Scale, and keep the Trees from it. 
Make a strong lather with Gishurst Soap and rain water. 
Dip, or wash the affected parts, and use the solution half strength 
for syringing. 



172 ROSE GARDENING 

No. 8. 
To Preserve Roses from Greenly all the Season. 
Syringe every other morning early, or after sundown, with a 
moderate lather of Lifebuoy Soap, added to three parts as 
much water as dissolves the soap. Syringe every morning 
or evening with rain water only, or, failing this, with water 
in which one teaspoonful of soot has been added to a gallon. 

No. 9. 

To Cure Brown Fungus on Rose Trees. 
If any brown or other fungus is discernible on rose trees 
in February or March, dissolve 2 ounces of sulphate of copper 
in 4^ gallons of soft water, and syringe them with this, one 
morning. 

No. 10. 

An Old Remedy for Green^fly and Blight. 
Whenever roses are infested with blights, take Flowers 
of Sulphur and Tobacco Dust, in equal portions, and dust 
the trees with this mixture in early morning, when the dew 
is on. When the insects disappear, wash the trees with a 
decoction of elder leaves. 

No. II. 

How to Trap Woodlice that are Tunnelling beneath Rose Roots. 

Obtain some rotting turnips, and lay these on the surface 
soil, after slightly hollowing them out. Examine the traps 
in the mornings. 

No. 12. 
Marnock's Cure for Aphis on Rose Trees. 

' The best season for destroying the aphis is while it remains 
in the egg state ; as, if suffered to breed, it multiplies to a 
frightful extent. For this purpose wash the stems and 
branches of the rose bushes, during winter, with a compo- 
sition of strong tobacco water and soft-soap ; or, if this be 
thought too expensive, with water heated to a temperature 



CURING THE ILLS OF ROSES 173 

of 200 degrees ; in both cases cleaning the branches after the 
composition, or hot water, has been apphed, with a small 
painter's brush. Should this precautionary method have 
been neglected, care should be taken to watch for the appear- 
ance of the first brood, and as soon as the insects are perceived 
to destroy them with lime or tobacco water, or by fumigating ; 
taking care to never use the boiling water after the buds are 
expanded, though it will not do the sHghtest injury before 
that period. Each succeeding brood being much more numerous 
than those which preceded it, is more difficult to destroy, 
till the summer broods, if suffered to appear, completely 
clothe the young shoots, so as to make them seem nearly three 
times their natural thickness. In this state, the best remedy 
is to put half a pound of the best strong tobacco into a gallon 
of hot water, and as soon as the infusion has become cold, 
to dip the young shoots into it, letting them remain a few 
seconds in the water, and, if they are in a very bad state, 
going over them a second time. After this, the shoots should 
be carefully washed with clean water, and the insects will 
generally be found to be destroyed.' 

No. 13. 
Cleaning Roses from a Little Green-fly. 
Use an aphis-brush, very gently, after damping it slightly 
with water, in each pint of which a dessertspoonful of Flowers 
of Sulphur has been dissolved overnight. 

No. 14. 

To Send Aphis off a Rose Tree. 

Dust the foliage and branches with fine snuff, some evening 

when they are moist. Go over the tree with soft water in the 

morning early, either dipping or syringing. Then scatter 

carbolic powder on the surface soil beneath. 

No. 15. 
To Rid Rose Ground of Ants. 
Pour on to the ground, when it is damp, a strong concoction 



174 ROSE GARDENING 

of fresh elder leaves, made by boiling them three hours in 
rain water. 

No. i6. 

To Rid Strong Rose Trees of Green-fly. 
Syringe them by night with a liquid made with one part of 
ammoniacal liquor, from gas-works, dissolved in seven or 
eight parts of water. Syringe thoroughly before the sun is 
on them next morning, with rain water. 

No. 17. 
To Clean Pot Roses from Aphis, etc. 
Dissolve 2 pounds of soda with i ounce of aloes, in a gallon 
of water, by boiling. When this is cold add 2 gallons of 
water more. Dip the trees bodily into this, holding a sheet 
of tin, or a thick cloth, over the soil to prevent the compost 
from being washed out. Lay the trees on their sides in the 
pots, on clean pavement, in shade for some hours, then wash 
them in clean water, preferably by dipping. 

No. 18. 

To get Rid of Red Spider on Rose Trees. 

Take a quarter of a pound each of soft-soap and aloes, dis- 
solve them in 2 gallons of water ; let it become cold, and 
use for dipping pot roses, or the branches and foliage of out- 
door trees ; or dilute the solution as much again, and syringe 
trees with it. Syringe off, a few hours later. Repeat the 
syringing operations three times a week for a month. 

No. 19. 

To Prevent Rose Trees from becoming Mildewed. 

Wash, and syringe them every fortnight, from April to 
November, with a decoction of elder leaves, steeping these 
in water for many hours previously. The mildew will not 
be able to form if this treatment is persevered with. 



CURING THE ILLS OF ROSES 175 

No. 20. 

To Cure Mildew. 

Pick off all diseased leaves, and dust with Flowers of Sulphur, 
leaving it on for three days. 

No. 21. 

An Old Cure for Mildew. 

Dissolve 2 ounces of nitre in 2 gallons of water, and water 
the trees with it occasionally. 

No. 22. 
How to Heal Wounds in the Bark of Rose Trees. 
' Take five-eighths of black pitch, and one-eighth rosin, 
one-eighth tallow, and one-eighth bee's wax ; these should 
be melted in a pan over a slow fire. Apply it to the wounds 
with a brush, and it will heal them, as well as prevent their 
dying back.' 

No. 23. 

Old Recipe for Destroying Maggot in Roses. 
' A bushel of unslaked lime in powder, half a pound of 
sulphur also in powder ; mix these well whilst dry, then add 
as much water and boil for an hour ; then add as much soot 
moistened to the same consistency, just enough to darken the 
colour ; lay this on with a brush all over, stock and head, 
in the latter part of February,' 

No. 24. 

To Trap Earwigs that are Eating Rose Buds or Shoots. 
Take some short bits of the stalks of giant sunflowers, which 
are hollow ; smear them slightly inside with rancid fat ; tie 
them in the rose trees, so that they are horizontal. Examine 
frequently. 



176 ROSE GARDENING 

No. 25. 

Quassia Solution for Syringing, or Dipping Rose Trees to 

Destroy Green-fly, etc. 
Infuse an ounce of Quassia Chips in every gallon of water 
required. 

No. 26. 
To keep away the Rose-leaf Cutter Bee. 
Wash the foliage tenderly with a strong solution of Quassia 
Chips; or dust with waste snuff, or tobacco powder. 

No. 27. 
To keep Caterpillars from Rose Trees. 
Dust the foliage and stems, in March and April, and later, 
with strong pepper, after a dew. 

No. 28. 
A Wash to keep Maggot from Rose Trees. 
Dissolve half an ounce of arsenate of soda in a little hot 
water, and put this into 8 gallons of water, which should be 
from a rain-water supply. Dissolve i\ ounces of acetate of 
lead in a little water, and add this to the other. Add enough 
gum, or treacle, to make the compound adhesive. Apply to all 
the lower stems of the rose trees, then to the upper branches ; 
lastly coat the leaves, and the young shoots just before the 
season when this pest is expected. 

It is a general rule to syringe, with plain water, twelve to 
twenty-four hours after applying chemicals to trees. 



CHAPTER XXXII 
ROSES IN POTS 

'December's rose is fairest of them all.' 

ROSES do wonderfully well in pots. Personally, I object to 
seeing the earliest forced blooms with weak long stems 
and a pallor of petal, a waxen delicacy that tells how they 
have struggled to endure unnatural conditions. But moder- 
ately forced roses are, of course, a genuine dehght, and thou- 
sands of rose lovers will agree with the nameless poet who 
declared, ' December's rose is fairest of them all.' I feel 
convinced he was thinking of the hardy venturesome rose 
we sometimes find opening bravely on some sunny wall out of 
doors. However, roses at Christmas are so welcomed by the 
majority of folk, it is necessary to consider how we may gain 
them. 

The first processes of growing roses in pots are the same, 
whether we mean to force highly, moderately, or not at all. 

The size of pot must depend on the size, not of the tree, 
but of the roots, with some regard to the habit of the variety. 
For example, a small-rooted Caroline Testout would flourish in a 
larger pot at once than it would be safe to give a small-rooted 
The Bride ; for Caroline is a rampant grower, and would 
soon cut ahead, helped by good compost. A 6-inch pot is 
a fair size for a medium rose tree, at first. 

The compost should be made very carefully. Mix fresh turfy 
loam with an equal proportion of really rotten cow-manure, 
or, better still, with old hotbed manure; then add coarse 
sand, about a quarter part, and as much burnt earth. Potting 
may be done in spring, if the roses are kept out of doors and 

177 M 



178 



ROSE GARDENING 



all the buds that show are ruthlessly picked off while in their 
infancy. But October is better. 

As to what class of rose to pot, I have not yet come across 
any kind that cannot be well grown in that way ; though 
the mosses, and some of the special rose species that are 
extra hardy, must be mostly in the open air, and will not 
force. 

Potting must be done very firmly, over a proper drainage 
crock system, and with coarse fibrous compost above the 
crocks, under the finer upper compost. 

When potted, the roses should be placed preferably in cold 




p^r\i - 



Pot Rose, Stood Out, on a Slate, and Two Bricks. 



frames until January ; they can be wintered out of doors 
sunk in warm borders, or stood out with plenty of matting 
fastened round their pots to keep frosts away from the roots. 
Hybrid Perpetuals, Teas, Bourbons, and Hybrids of these, 
should be pruned in November, either severely, to within 
two eyes of their base, or strong stems, or to three, four, 
five, or six eyes. Any that are wanted to bloom later, after 
the others, should not be pruned until December or January. 
This is the way to obtain a succession of blossoming roses 



ROSES IN POTS 179 

in pots, without varying the temperature conditions — a thing 
it is often out of the question for the amateur to do. 

From January to May the pot trees should be in the green- 
house, to bloom, but some success can be gained with them 
in deep frames, suitably protected, or in sunny room windows 
where the supply of air can be always liberal. Of course 
those trees not given the greenhouse heat will be long in 
blooming. Not that much heat is required, or desirable ; 
one of more than fifty degrees is unsuitable, and ten degrees 
less is preferable. After May, out the trees mmst go again, 
or they will become weakly. They can well be stood each 
on a slab of slate, along gravel walks, then receive plenty of 
attention, in the way of watering, soot-water applications, 
fertilizer, liquid cow-manure-water, bone meal, guano, etc. 
Their blooms during the summer out of doors will be good, 
and established trees can be permitted to yield them ; it is 
only young ones, not having yet bloomed under glass, that 
must be stripped of all their forming buds. 

Perhaps the most important fact for the inexperienced 
gardener to commit to memory is that no rose must be forced 
at all under glass until it has lived in its pot for a year. Florists 
often break this rule ; the public admires the results, buys 
the flowering-pot specimens, and finds them of little, ^if any, 
value afterwards. The old methods were very slow, and 
very excellent. Here is a quotation from an old book on 
the subject. 

Forcing Early Roses. 

' We know that a rose can be potted in January, and made 
to produce flowers in May ; but those who wish to force 
should know the best way. A rose, then, for early forcing 
requires three seasons to be perfect. The first season it should 
be put into a greenhouse, and from thence into the stove, 
as early as November or December. 

' It is sure to grow, no matter what sort it is ; and let it 
grow its best, but pluck off the buds if it have any, yet it 
should not be drawn ; this can be managed two or three 



i8o ROSE GARDENING 

ways, but all it requires to prevent drawing is light and air. 
These will have grown pretty well as large as they can grow, 
by the time they may be turned out and plunged in the open 
air. The wood will ripen well in the summer time ; and in 
October re-pot them into a larger size pot ; prune them by 
taking off all the weaker shoots, and all the least valuable of 
those in each other's way ; shorten the best wood to two or three 
eyes, thinning the inner branches all that may be necessary to 
give light, air, and freedom to the new wood. Take them into 
the greenhouse, thence, soon, into the stove. Let the bloom 
buds, as they appear, be plucked off, and the growth be per- 
fected again, which will be earlier than the previous season, 
as they were set growing earlier. Be early in your attendance 
on them, when they commence growing, so as to remove 
useless buds, instead of allowing them to form useless branches. 
When the growth is completed remove them into a cold frame, 
to be kept from the spring frosts, but where they can have 
all the fine weather. In this state they are to remain till 
they can safely be put out in the open air, plunged into the 
ground, and properly fastened to protect them from wind. 
In September you may examine the balls of earth, to see if 
the roots have room ; if matted at all, give them another 
change. Prune the plants well as before ; removing altogether 
such of the present year's shoots as are at all weakly, and 
shortening all the best to two or three eyes. Let them now 
be taken to the greenhouse, or conservatory, or a grapery, 
or all in turn, but gradually increase the temperature, till, 
by the end of October, they may go into the forcing house, 
beginning at the temperature the house was they came from, 
say fifty to fifty-five, and continuing it till they are fairly 
growing ; then increasing it to sixty, and eventually to sixty- 
five, rubbing off, as before, all useless shoots, and giving plenty 
of air when it can be done without lowering the temperature. 
At the least appearance of green fly, syringe with plain water ; 
fumigate at night, gently syringe again in the morning ; 
fumigate gently at night, for too strong a smoke would all but 
destroy the plants and incipient blooms. In this way you 



ROSES IN POTS i8i 

will be clear of the pest without danger of damage, and your 
reward will be a fine show of blossom on every rose tree ; strong 
growth, healthy foliage, handsome plants, and all that can 
be desired.' 

This long extract from the renowned gardener Glenny's 
book will show how the strong forcing of roses can be done ; 
the ordinary grower had better keep to cultivating pot roses 
for the usual type of greenhouse, with moderate temperature, 
to obtain blooms well in advance of those from the beds and 
borders, but not in mid-winter. 

Most gardeners will not allow the stood-out roses to bear 
any blooms during summer and autumn. While stating 
forcibly that none can be permitted from trees that are being 
prepared for their ^rs^ blossoming under glass, I am convinced 
that the trees, after giving the few early flowers, can gratify 
us by other yields, without taking any harm. Of course, 
the best roses for flowering under glass are those specially 
prepared. And these are the earlier to bloom. Those that 
have been out, plunged in ashes, or stood along paths, and 
allowed to bud and bloom, are slower in progress after they 
have been pruned back in November. But, many masters, 
many minds, as the old saw goes. It is a mistake to manage 
all the pot roses on identical lines, for greater knowledge, 
and varied successes, are reaped by experimenting, year 
after year. 

If the surface compost becomes green, slimy, mossed, it 
should be scraped off and replaced by some burnt earth, with 
a layer of the usual compost over that. If worms are suspected 
of having entered the pots, two tablespoonfuls of lime should 
be dissolved for twelve hours in a pint of water, and the trees 
watered with this water increased by two parts more. This 
is almost sure to bring the worms to the top, and if the pots 
are laid first on their sides — directly the lime water has per- 
meated the soil, that is to say — the invaders will wriggle 
on to the path, and make their escape. All the chief rose- 
tree merchants sell pot roses, either young, to be grown on, 
or established, ready for putting under glass. 



l82 



ROSE GARDENING 



The culture of climbing roses under glass is another branch 
of the art. They succeed best when planted in made borders, 
at least i8 inches deep, and adequately drained. Trees 
planted in October should be cut down to within 8 inches 
of the compost, which should resemble that used for pots. 
In future years the climbers have to be pruned back to within 




Pot Rose, Stood upon Wooden Laths, on Border Strewn 
Thickly with Cinders. 



6 or 8 inches as soon as they have flowered ; however, I know 
many an aged tree, ornamenting a greenhouse wall, that has 
been let grow with a trunk, and had the branches only pruned 
back to within 8 or 9 inches of the chief boughs. Very little 
water should be given during the winter months, plenty during 
the growing season, and feeding should be generous from 
April to the end of autumn. 



ROSES IN POTS 183 

Quite unhealed greenhouses can be well used for rose cul- 
ture, both for pot plants and border-planted trees. The 
great drawbacks are the quick variations of temperature, 
and the spring damp. A spell of hot sunshine will send 
the temperature up high, and perhaps a very cold night will 
follow. Still, by ventilating carefully, with an eye on the 
thermometer, and by keeping the house spotlessly clean, 
and not letting any uncovered water remain in it, these evils 
can be mitigated. Tender roses, such as Niphetos and 
Marechal Niel, often thrive magnificently with a glass roof 
above them, but without artificial heat. China Roses are 
never out of bloom when well dealt with by this method. A 
delicate Tea, such as The Bride, or beautiful damask-crimson 
Etoile de France, are seen in perfection when their blooms 
do not have to contend with the effects of weather. 



CHAPTER XXXIII 
THE MARECHAL NIEL ROSE 

' Not a pink rose, though fine its form, 
Nor white-clad beauty, pure, and sweet, but cold. 
Give me no rose of red, however warm, 
I choose a flower supreme, a rose of gold.' 

THE Marechal Niel Rose is, somehow, a class by itself — 
at any rate, it seems so. Yellow garden roses have 
arrived in plenty of late years, and we hear the best described 
as * almost the colour of a Marechal Niel.' The ambition of 
the owner of a new greenhouse is generally to grow the Mare- 
chal Niel. Its scent is unique ; its majestic air is familiar 
to us all. So a few lines are not out of place dedicated all 
to this rose, although the advice given as to pot roses and 
greenhouse climbers, in the preceding chapter, might suffice. 
True, there is one suggestion that has not been made yet ; 
it is that the Marechal Niel does best when planted just outside 
the greenhouse, if there is a sunny wall nook, and if its branches, 
its main stems, are taken in through a purposely made hole 
in the wall, so that the roots are outdoor, the tree indoor. It 
takes away the exotic look that the blooms really ought not 
to have ; it results in firmer stalks, and blossoms set nobly 
upon them, without too much of that drooping, heavy-headed 
e^ect that detracts a little from their grandeur. If this 
method of culture is pursued there must be constant mulches 
put above the roots, to prevent their feeling a terribly different 
temperature to that which the trunk and branches experience ; 
mulches of the very oldest cow-manure, mulches of leaf mould, 
mulches of burnt earth, mulches of fresh turfy loam. 

If the Marechal is grown inside the greenhouse there must 

184 



THE MARECHAL NIEL ROSE 185 

be a real abundance of air, otherwise it will not thrive ; and 
this abundance must be arranged without disastrous draughts 
or cutting blasts. 

Outdoor planting should be done at the end of September, if 
possible ; indoor planting, in borders, tubs, or pots, in October 
or November, though it is admissible to defer planting till March, 
if necessity compels. The border must be 2 feet deep, drained 
perfectly ; the compost can be reckoned the same for borders 
or pots ; what is known as good stiff yellow loam is wanted, 
mixed with a fourth part of thoroughly rotten farmyard, or 
only cow, manure, nearly a fourth part too of crushed mortar 
or crushed brick, the whole sprinkled with bone-meal. 

Prune immediately after planting, cutting the shoots to 
within 8 inches of the base ; protect the stem if it is not wholly 
taken through the wall — in any case protect the base. Prune 
always in the same way, to within 8 inches of the main branches, 
directly after the tree has flowered. And cut out every atom 
of dead wood, each March, taking particular pains not to 
leave dead tips to any shoots. 

Water ought to be given tepid, from April onwards freely ; 
not much after September ; syringings are good when the 
temperature is genial, but must be gently done, and not when 
buds are colouring, or blooms are open, unless these are 
somehow covered first. 

When the tree is a year old, therefore established — has 
been a year planted, I should say — liquid manures, varied, 
should be given every week from March to October, if not 
too strongly compounded. 

This rose needs a giant pot, or tub, and can be stood out all 
summer after it has flowered early, against a south wall, 
receiving much attention, as to syringing, etc. Dead blooms 
should never be left on the branches. 

As a rule the Marechal Niel flourishes better trained over 
the roof of the glasshouse than against the wall, and its pendant 
blossoms can be best admired so. 



CHAPTER XXXIV 
BREEDING ROSES 

' I have seen roses, damasked red and white.' 

Shakespeare. 

CHAPTER XXV was devoted to the always interesting 
subject of raising roses from seed, and I pointed out 
that some marvellous piece of good fortune might so reward 
the sower that he would find himself in possession of a remark- 
able variety, about which all Europe would soon be talking. 

There is that chance. Do not let me be called a wet blanket 
if I say it is a remote one. The roses the amateur will obtain, 
by amateurish efforts, will be a few very pretty ones, in which 
he will delight, of which he will be prouder than of the better 
roses in his garden that he only bought ; and the rest will be 
poor stuff. But, if any man cares to go in for scientific rose 
breeding, why, the whole world lies before him. 

Firstly, he should decide from which trees he desires to 
gather the seed. Then he must hand-hybridize one, or two, 
of the buds, not more, on each tree, and keep all further buds 
picked off while babies from those trees. He must see that 
the trees are receiving enough water to enable them to swell 
the seed-vessels, and also see that the hips, or heps, as some 
prefer to call them, are exposed to all possible sunshine. 

How is a bud to be hybridized ? 

Firstly, it is necessary to remove the stamens, or male organs, 
from the bud, before the pollen dust is ripe ; to do this the 
bud has to be slit open a little, when it is showing colour ; 
a few of the outer petals are stripped off altogether, then the 
remainder are slit through at one side until the anthers are 
visible, and can be cut off by a sharp pair of scissors. A 

186 



BREEDING ROSES 187 

muslin bag has next to be tied right over the bud, to prevent 
insects from approaching it ; and must remain on. When 
the bud is about three-quarters developed it will be time to 
apply the pollen from another flower to its now glutinous- 
coated stigmas. The pollen will be found to be a golden 
dust, on the rose's anthers, and will be easily lifted by a small 
camel-hair brush, and so conveyed to the muslin-protected 
bud, and laid within it. Plenty of pollen should be used. 
Then the bud is re-enclosed in the muslin bag. When the 
hep is well swollen the muslin bag should be removed. The 
seed of specially hybridized roses is usually sown at once ; 
it is, I think, best to sow each seed in a 3-inch pot, after rubbing 
it out, because there is then little danger of losing the seed- 
lings, which should make thek appearance in the following 
year, in all probability. The pots can be sunk in cinders, 
up to their brims, in a cold frame ; then the gardener has 
them always at his command. Of course, when rose breeding 
is carried on by the thousands, instead of dozens, it becomes 
necessary to make use of glasshouses on purpose, or the open 
ground. 

I have found that seedling roses in pots grow faster if 
planted out when large enough to fill those pots with roots — 
that is to say, when the tips of roots obtrude from the drainage 
holes ; otherwise they may be potted on by slow degrees. 
The lot of seedlings that appear second are likely to be the 
best ; the first batch are seldom as good. When at last a 
seedling tree throws a flower the amateur must not expect 
to see a triumph ; it is almost sure to be a poor-looking little 
thing, to the uninitiated eye ; very likely semi-double. But 
in another year or two the new variety will be able to show 
its quality, supposing it has been grown well. 

The old plan of rose breeders was to group those trees 
together from which parentage was desired ; then florists 
began to artificially impregnate the flowers, in the manner 
here described. A famous authority in 1843, editor of the 
Practical Florist, wrote the following interesting instructions : 

' Suppose we wanted a yellow moss rose, having already 



i88 ROSE GARDENING 

several very pretty yellow roses, not moss — here we should 
try a moss, the best in habit and mossy quality we could find, 
and plant all the yellow roses likely to assist in the operation 
round it. The Chinese are in favour of the seedlings from 
the moss coming moss, and the pollen of the yellow roses 
impregnating it ; but, as artificial impregnation could be 
performed more easily than with some flowers, we should 
apply the pollen of the best yellow to every flower that came 
out on the moss, and see if this did not command success. 
With a pair of tweezers, a bunch of the anthers from the 
yellow rose can be taken as soon as they exhibit their fine 
yellow dust, and apply this to the pistil of the yellow moss 
rose, having first removed all the anthers from the moss 
rose away. In short, in all cases the habit and principal 
qualities of the parent may be expected, therefore the seed 
should be saved from the one whose habits and characteristics 
are required, and the plant it is impregnated with should be 
that whose qualities or character we wish to add.' 

The methods of to-day are more thorough ; but there is a 
good lesson in the theory explained by that old writer. 

After this period it was discovered how disappointing were 
the results of breeding without being able to ' fix ' the strain ; 
then the world-famous Abbe Gregor Mendel arrived to guide 
the scientists, and what is known as Mendel's Law for breeding 
flowers became generally practised, to the immense benefit 
of floriculture. Suffice it to say here that Mendel's Law 
must be recognized as the recipe for obtaining a generation 
or two of one rose variety, without that variety's character- 
istics disappearing from its progeny. If an amateur raises 
a rose variety that he believes, or is told, is really valuable 
he had better exhibit it at some great show, or take some of 
its blooms to a noted rose-grower for trade ; then the fixing 
of that variety will be in competent hands. 



CHAPTER XXXV 
ROSES IN ROCKERIES 

' Sweet Summer comes, with all her roses, 
Dearer than Young Spring's pallid posies.' 

AROSE Rock-Garden is a beautiful novelty. Those 
who wish to make one should first lay in a stock of 
rocks — on the principle of ' First Catch Your Hare.' 

I suppose more abominations have been created in the way 
of rockeries than in any other form of attempts to improve 
gardens. The rocks should be old, if possible, at any rate 
grey, not flecked with all the colours of the peacock. Stones 
will soon age, but time, albeit so powerful, can do nothing 
to soften the garish ugliness of coke-waste, and other of the 
hideous gay materials that are frequently piled high in villa 
pleasure grounds. The Old Man With The Scythe cannot 
always compel Nature to hide those in mossy clothing ; they 
are so crudely rough and scorching that vegetation creeps 
between, instead of draping them. 

The right old rocks are to be found in romantic localities, 
mountainous ascents, valleys at the foot of hills, or where 
ancient rocky formations peep through in the woods and vales 
of whole districts, as in the neighbourhood of East Grinstead 
and Ashdown Forest ; also in the beds of rivers, and the 
plains that were once sea basins. But, fortunately, there 
are vast stores of great grey stones under the soil in many 
counties ; builders' men dig them up by the thousand. Or 
there are world-famous nurserymen who either sell the rocks, 
or build rockeries to order, in any part of the kingdom. 

I have sometimes advocated rockeries of whitened stones, 
but that is a freak-feature fancy, far from vulgar, charming 

189 



igo 



ROSE GARDENING 



by night or day, suited to Alpine plants, not to the rose. 
I do implore rose-lovers to give the rose an aesthetic rock- 
garden, or none at all. 

It must have giant slabs and peaks, as well as medium- 
sized rocks for grouping, and small rocks for scattering ; 
it will be best on a slope, or a series of dips, making different 
dells and levels ; there should be no uniformity, the wider 




A Portion of a Rose Rock Garden. 



the effects the handsomer. The soil must be very rich, because 
it will have to satisfy the trees for years, except for such 
extra nourishment as mulches and liquids provide. The site 
should be sunny ; the ideal thing is to make use of a quarter- 
acre square of land, build the rock-garden on that, in a round 
or oval shape, but without mathematical accuracy, then 
have a paved base of old grey paving-stone — that will be 
indeed a genial nook for sitting-out in. There may be a 



ROSES IN ROCKERIES 191 

grotto arbour or two, or a hut built of rock in the open, all 
overgrown by rampant roses. 

If there are seats let them be of stone, with wooden slabs on 
them painted so as not to be distinguishable from the stone. 

The noblest roses should be the companions of the noblest 
rocks ; a Conrad F. Meyer can embrace a Stonehenge-like 
peak, or rise between two mighty crags, to veil their angles 
with its autumn-tinted foHage, and give the eye-dehghting 
harmony of pink with grey. Dorothy Perkins can clamber 
up a rockery slant of eighteen feet, or more, or will hang down 
from the summit level, to carpet the pavement with shed 
petals of rosy cerise. 

Yet the little Dwarf Polyanthas will be quite as much at 
home, springing up in deep pockets of soil anywhere ; jutting 
out beside the great strong roses, peeping from spaces that will 
look mere crevices seen from below, or, if massed at the warm 
valley foot of the steeps, are sure to be flower-laden right 
into mid-winter. 

Delicate Teas love those same sheltered nooks ; the pale 
blossoms of Niphetos (the non-climbing variety) of Devoni- 
ensis, and Souvenir de la Malmaison, will open to a perfection 
not often to be gained from them on unprotected levels. 

Alas ! — the Rose Rock Garden on a fine scale is only possible 
for the few among rose-lovers, favoured mortals, with acres, 
and full purses. But there may be a rose rockery in nearly 
any garden — a rocked border in the smallest, surely ? The 
stones must not be of the Titanic type, yet some must be 
much larger than others, or the appearance will be tame. 
Many an ill-tended rockery, planted with the ubiquitous 
alyssums, arabises, pinks, and stonecrops, could be cleared 
to advantage, relaid on manured soil, and given up to roses. 

A rockery in semi-shade will do for Japanese Briars (Rugosas), 
China, and Dwarf Polyantha roses, with some of the vigorous 
Hybrid Perpetuals and Hj^brid Teas, such as J. B. Clark, 
Hugh Dickson, Noella Nabonnand, Reine Olga de Wurtem- 
burg, A. K. Williams, Baroness Rothschild, Eugenie Verdier, 
and Madame Gabrielle Luizet. Even Madame Abel Chatenay, 



192 ROSE GARDENING 

good old red Marie Baumann, of the delicious scent, and pink 
Caroline Testout, will do well. The roses in the sunniest 
rockeries can be kept cool and moist at the roots by mulching 
them in their deep pockets with leaf mould each May. The 
roses in the coldest rockeries seldom take any harm, because 
old dry manure can be heaped above where their roots are, 
and the shelter of the rocks does the rest. 

Moss Roses are never fairer than in a rock-garden, and, 
oh, how sweet their mossiness smells, on damp evenings ! 

Ancient-world roses gain a new charm — the beloved Maiden's 
Blush, the White Provence, Unique, the striped York and 
Lancaster, and the inimitable old Cabbage. 

The Austrian Briar's clear yellow, and orange, will be an 
appreciable colour note each early summer. 

The Rose Rock Garden should be maintained in fair order, 
without ever appearing ' neat ' as though recently tidied. 
Let the trees straggle, grow Japanesquely one-sided if they 
choose. 

Train them invisibly ; paint every bit of stake the green 
of that special rose's foliage ; and avoid dotting the place 
with labels. A chart will do just as well, hung up in the 
arbour. 

Really, sweeping up basketfuls of petals will be the main 
work. 




CAROLINE TESTOUT (_Fale Pink) 



GRUSS AN TEPLITZ {.Crimson) 



CHAPTER XXXVI 
MOATS, DITCHES, AND BANKS OF ROSES 

' Is Life discordant ? — Wait a sweeter tune. 
Though stems be bare, there will be roses soon.' 

ROSES do surprisingly well on banks, except in bleak 
places. Perhaps the depth of soil they possess is one 
reason why they flourish, but the making up of new banks 
is attended with some risks, unless the gardener knows well 
what he is about. If they are made of fresh turves inverted, 
or contain a great quantity of buried weeds, they are likely 
to heat, which would be bound to kill roots of evergreen 
shrubs, so naturally spell death to roses. If they have 
shrub and ivy clippings thrown in, there will be a souring, 
or poisoning of the soil, that will probably end in the death of 
the trees. If they are formed loosely, or if roses are planted 
before they have had time to settle, failure will again result. 

Banks should be built up on stones for drainage, then of 
coarse lumpy turfy loam, old inverted turves, by all means ; 
then of moderately fine earth, mixed with old manure, brick 
rubble, vegetable ashes, leaf mould, soot or lime, and the 
finer soil towards the summit should be sprinkled with bone- 
meal, for roses. 

As to size, that is immaterial, so long as there is depth and 
room enough. A mound three feet wide at the top, and four 
feet high, is an example of a small bank. A series of undu- 
lating banks, six feet or more apart, along a wide sweep of 
lawn, will make the foundation of a very charming rosery. 
The shapes of these banks should not correspond ; some may 
be almost angular, some almost spherical, some long and 
narrow, some broad and high. 

193 Jl 



194 ROSE GARDENING 

Banks have their uses in a garden, to shut out ugly views, 
or help to create lovely vistas, to oppose barriers to peeping 
eyes from roadways, to partition off roseries of differing 
character, to hide vegetables, to give sheltered nooks for 
seats, to reheve the monotony of a flat garden, to render 
the distance mysterious, to separate the tradesmen's entrance- 
way from the front of the house, to screen beds, and to bring 
the perfumes and beauties of roses nearer to the visitor. 

The surface of banks should be mulched heavily with old 
manure, so that sun heat cannot rapidly exhaust the soil, 
and of course a mulch is not attractive to look upon, so an 
outer mulch of leaf-mould and burnt earth will be found a 
great improvement. One of the merits of burnt earth is 
that it looks so neat and wholesome. Roses on banks require 
watering by pailfuls twice a week, during rainless spells of 
summer. Giant banks are usually made with wooden logs, 
or stakes, driven into them, to serve as hold-ups for the soil. 
A grand effect can be gained by letting old tree stumps, or 
natural logs, protrude in places. Immense banks are very 
fine when draped by Ramblers and Wichuraianas, which should 
be so pegged down as to become multiplied. 

Moats are ditches on a large scale, ditches with broad flat 
bottoms, in which a little water at least is visible. Or, of 
course, there is the Dry Moat ; but this is lacking in the 
chief charm a moat should possess. Roses by water are 
always roses seen at their best. If the moat sides are high, 
rampant climbers should descend from them here and there, 
to dabble their ends in the stream ; other portions may be 
planted with bushes, others given to pegged-down Teas, 
others set over with hardy bushes, the little Scotch White 
Rose, the Sweet Briars, the old Cabbage and Maiden's Blush, 
the poetic Mosses, being all suitable. 

Ditches of roses are pretty at the foot of rose hedges, but 
their sides will not provide spaces for big growing roses, only 
for Teas, Dwarf Chinas, and Polyanthas. 

No, the moat is the feature to make in the large garden, 
not far from some ruined old wall, perhaps, or pagoda built 



MOATS, DITCHES, AND BANKS OF ROSES 195 

of ancient stone so irregularly as to seem to be tottering 
through age. The Pernetiana Roses, of which Soleil d'Or 
is a fair specimen, are excellent for pegging down, on bold 
sloping sides. And, where there is a moat, the gardener is 
almost bound to make bridges, which afford yet another 
fashion of showing off some long-armed climbing roses, and 
of gaining the exquisite association of rose blossoms with 
water. 



CHAPTER XXXVII 

ROSE PERGOLAS AND ARCHES 

' There is no sweeter place for dreaming — 
In slumber that is only seeming — 
Than where June sunshine soft reposes 
Upon a canopy of roses.' 

A PERGOLA can be an atrocity or a triumph — like many 
another garden feature. When one remembers all 
the ridiculous pergolas one has seen one is tempted to bid 
the inexperienced rose cultivator shun the pergola altogether ; 
yet there is no reason why even a pergola in quite a small garden 
should not be perfect of its kind. 

Grand pergolas are to be found in countless magnificently 
managed gardens of the United Kingdom, gardens, let it 
be gratefully noted, that are mostly thrown open to visitors 
on given occasions. The scenes they exhibit cHng long to 
memory. Originality has been expended on the erection of 
some of these noted pergolas — we may see one of all white 
stone and scarlet flowers, perennials below roses ; others of 
blue and gold only, delphiniums, violas, lupins, alkanets, 
salvias, lobelias, etc., beside the yellow and orange rose 
varieties ; there is at least one pergola built of marble ; I 
have heard of several made of pine trees, silver birch bark 
figures romantically in some, statuary turns some others 
into veritable galleries of art. 

Then the size of pergolas has often been remarkable ; 
the brick pillars of a walk a mile long may be almost towers, 
and the roses have to be nailed to them as on walls. The 
length of a pergola is often much greater than is guessed, 
perspective lines being deceptive, while the walk may wind 

106 



ROSE PERGOLAS AND ARCHES 197 

about the grounds, and double and turn upon itself. A 
lovely effect is gained by encircling a lawn by a pergola that 
is red, white, gold, and salmon, or maroon, on the different 
sides. 

An all-white pergola, white as to painted supports, pave- 
ment, and flowers above and below, is certainly very striking ; 
there is no colour to clash, no relief to the snowiness but the 
green of foliage and near grass, and the golden hearts of some 
of the roses. 

A pale green painted pergola with simply pale and deep 
pink roses about it, bushes at the foot, climbers on high, 
becomes each summer a sort of ecstasy in colour. 

Golden-rose pergolas, of rustic woodwork stained deep 
brown and varnished, are one man's fancy ; another likes a 
blend of all rose colours, with yew hedges as boundaries, 
and pergola pillars of slender cream-painted iron. 

Old red-brick pillars tone with all roses but rose pinks and 
carmine-crimsons ; the pergola built thus would be well 
finished by an accompanying old brick wall on each side, 
all planted with such hardy subjects as will live and bloom 
on little sustenance. 

Ridiculous pergolas are those too small, either in breadth 
or height, those that are so thickly covered, so flatly roofed, 
as to look like mere tunnels, and to have always a stuffy 
dimness. Then there are pergolas nearly all woodwork and 
very little bloom or foliage, pergolas of Lilliputian proportions 
in front of mansions or castles, pergolas of Brobdingnagian 
solidity of girth, and stature, in the vicinity of bijou cots. 

I suppose the most essential thing, apart from the artistic 
choice of a style of pergola, is to see that the structure is firmly 
put up. Leaning pillars look foolish, no matter their worth, 
or the lovehness of their climbers. If wood is painted, or if 
it is peeled, or used in natural state with bark on, charring 
the poles for two feet of their height, and placing all this 
portion below ground, will be sufficient to save them from 
rotting, and from falling, if they are made firm in the soil. 
Driving stakes against the pillars when putting them in, then 



198 ROSE GARDENING 

sawing the stakes off even with the ground, so as not to spoil 
the pillar's grace, is a good method. 

Brick sockets, lined with concrete, are excellent for holding 
iron pillars erect. 

The walk under a rustic pergola may be of grass, gravel, 
or brick ; that beneath a stone pergola may be of any kind 
but brick, to be artistic. Flagstones would be most in keeping. 
The path beneath a brick pergola, if not of brick, may be 
of asphalte, strewn with crushed sea shell, of flagstones, of 
gravel, of tiles, of turf. I trust all gardeners will beware 
of tiled walks ; it is so rarely that they harmonize with the 
flower colours, and there is something new-villa about them 
always. Ornaments for the sides along pergolas include 
clipped trees and bushes, figures in stone of nymphs, satyrs, 
gods and goddesses, crouching fawns, dogs, etc. Of the last 
I will only say that they are more quaint than a rosery that 
is in pergola shape really requires ! Vases of stone, or rustic 
wood urns, are good where their character corresponds with 
that of the pergola. 

The question arises whether the roses shall have the pergola 
all to themselves, or share its environs with herbaceous plants, 
bedding stuff, or sown annuals, and its arches with clematises, 
honeysuckles, etc. Well, there is scope for tastes diverse, 
as the old lady said when she slipped half a basinful of sugar into 
her cup of tea, and sprinkled salt on her bread and butter. 
One fine plan is always to mingle merely summer climbers, and 
bush roses below, with good autumn varieties. Then no stretch 
of the pergola will be leafage only at either season. The 
putting up of arches requires the same care, as to making 
them safe against winds, as do the pergola's pillars. The 
same means will ensure good results. Charring of wood, 
and concreting, or cementing, in of the bases, occasional 
fixing also to stakes, are correct devices. 

We see far too many galvanized wire arches in gardens, 
but it seems unreasonable to quarrel with this, since an arch 
is simply a thing to be covered up as soon as possible, and 
roses, of the strong types, can be trusted to do this in a couple 



ROSE PERGOLAS AND ARCHES 



199 



of years' time. By planting a close-growing climber of another 
species, at one side, or each side of an arch — say a Japanese 
Honeysuckle — and placing the two roses on the other sides, 
or else planting those flush with the broadest portions of the 
arch, we can obtain a closer-clothed appearance, and probably 




... — =^.' ../ <^ ^. - - -^- 




Pillars, sunk Two Feet Deep, Wedged Round by Stones, ready 
•FOR Earth to be Shovelled in. 

the rose trees gain more from the evergreen's shelter than 
they lose from sharing the ground. Ivy is unsuitable. 

There are very wide rustic arches, ornamental in them- 
selves, which we do not erect for the express purpose of 
hiding them. Trellis-woodwork arches, painted an indeter- 
minate green, not violent grass-green, or rank myrtle, suit 



200 ROSE GARDENING 

trim villa gardens, but are out of taste in the natural sort of 
garden, on account of the prim checkboard pattern of their 
structure, 

A very praiseworthy arch can be made by stretching wire 
netting taut between two bean or hop poles, then painting 
the netting the greyish brown of these supports. These 
arches are scarcely visible at a little distance. 



CHAPTER XXXVIII 
ROSE HEDGES AND ROSE ESPALIERS 

' Roses of Autumn, Roses of Spring, 
Roses of silver, roses of fire. 
Yet of all roses poets may sing, 

Gather me just the sweet scented old briar.' 

IT was a great landscape gardener who said the man who 
had two hedges of one sort of laurel in his grounds ought 
to be hung ! Perhaps the man who has a number of common- 
place hedges, when he might have hedges of roses, is more 
to be pitied than blamed. For he must be ignorant. If 
he really knew the loveliness of well-made and well-grown 
rose hedges he would not rest till he had obtained some. 

Take a hedge of all China Roses as an illustration. There 
may be several shades of pink in it, a fiery red-rose, white, 
and bright crimson ; the flowers will appear very early, and 
never cease till winter is actually severe. Even then some 
buds will open, in sheltered nooks of the hedge, and peep 
out of the foliage to see what frost and snow are doing to other 
roses. All that a gardener has to do, to gain a hedge of this 
sort, is to order the common pink China, Ducher, white, 
Armosa, deep rose, and either China Old Crimson, or Fabvier, 
which has white centres to its flowers. Leuchtfeur is a magni- 
ficent blood-red, which might well be included. The planting 
should be done in November or December, putting the bushes 
eighteen inches apart, and given three stakes each, one for 
the middle, upright, one on each side, slanted, for the branches 
to be slightly stretched out to. This method makes a quicker 
hedge, with China Roses, than can be gained by training all 
the growth straight up, I find. There is no need to cut the 

201 



202 ROSE GARDENING 

roses down after planting ; the top shoots should be removed, 
and their own vigour will cause them to grow thick as well 
as tall. In the spring, when growth is beginning strongly, 
all the shoots should be stopped again, then the development 
will be all for thickness. Indeed, the next drawback will 
be that the hedge will be too thick for its own welfare, then 
judicious thinning out of branches will have to be practised, 
removing the weaker bits. The Chinas are wonderful roses. 
For a high hedge we can choose between one of Japanese 
Briars (Rugosas) or one of Ramblers or Wichuraianas. The 
former have the merit of growing in hedge form naturally, 
not needing to be propped up and wound about as will the 
rampant climbers. Of course some stakes will be required 
by the Japanese Briars, but one for each will be sufficient, 
with strong tarred string, or rope, stretched from tree to tree, 
to tie the younger growth to ; one string only a foot off the 
ground, another two feet above that, a third two feet higher, 
when needed. Tarred string, or rope, can be recommended 
instead of the wire so often used ; it does not cut the soft 
new boughs. Rugosas may be said to need no pruning when 
employed to form hedges ; but there should be a limit to the 
height of the whole hedge, and every shoot should be ' stopped ' 
by cutting it when it reaches that level ; which will throw 
the strength of the tree into the manufacture of side shoots. 

Ramblers must have exceedingly strong high posts, of 
course, and, while they can be restrained by stretched ropes, 
I find it best to build a mock-living hedge of old bean-faggots, 
for them to be trained over ; before the faggots rot away, 
or snap, the rose growth will be so dense, between the posts, 
that the destruction of the foundation will not be of the least 
concern. In the spring, after planting, the Ramblers should be 
cut back one half. 

A Gloire de Dijon hedge was one of the delights of a garden 
I once loved ; the trees had been planted only three feet apart 
originally, and the boughs had been turned back on themselves, 
so to speak, as well as arched over directly they reached the 
six feet level for the top, and other branches had been stretched 



ROSE HEDGES AND ROSE ESPALIERS 203 

out horizontally, and woven in and out with their neighbours. 
The solidity of that hedge was a sight at which to marvel. 
Old wood was cut out each March, and soon after that the whole 
length of the hedge became crimson with young shoots. 




A Rustic Wood Fencing for Roses. 

Hybrid Briar Roses make charming hedges, but the best 
way to have a close hedge quickly is to alternate a Hybrid 
Briar with a Sweet Briar, just the old favourite ; the latter 
can be clipped with ruthless shears into form and the Hybrid 
Briar Roses be trained over this mass of greenery. 

For great hardiness the Hybrid Scotch rose called Standwell 



204 ROSE GARDENING 

Perpetual is remarkable, and a hedge of this, three feet high, 
on average, has a peculiar beauty owing to the fern-like, or 
cut-out, leaves ; at a few yards' distance the appearance is 
unlike that of any other rose in the garden, a filmy waving 
line of foliage, studded all over with large double deep blush 
flowers. This rose is as generous as the Chinas in beginning 
early and continuing late. 

Aglaia, the yellow Rambler, and Felicite Perpetue, white, 
are roses I greatly admire for hedge making, because of their 
splendid glossy foliage that is attractive all the year round. 

When we come to the consideration of Rose Espaliers, we 
find that almost any rose is suitable, and the choice may be 
influenced solely by the nature of the climate at that particular 
place. Teas will form good hedges in warm spots ; strong 
Hybrid Perpetuals, like the Duke of Edinburgh, answer 
grandly in less sheltered ones. And that which can be said 
of hedges may also be said of espaliers. 

Natural wood is the best of which to build espalier supports ; 
these should be set at sufficiently even distances, and be kept 
to sufficiently even level, for it to be apparent that some 
uniformity is contemplated ; yet there should be no mathe- 
matical accuracy. Bits of wood should jut out of the sides, 
and give relief to the uniformity of the top ; parts of the struc- 
ture should be thinner than others — gaps over which the rose 
boughs will pass to be tied to a giant network of boughs of 
the natural wood a little further, will add to the grace of the 
whole. We do not want to train roses on espaliers as we 
would train a fruit tree on one, or on a wall ; such primness 
detracts from the beauty of any rose tree. 

Bamboo rods are very bad espalier supports really, because 
they are almost sure to bend, and become permanently bent, 
under the weight of a wind-blown hedge's boughs. Willow 
rods have been used, with disappointing results ; not only 
are they apt to grow, and make trees of themselves, but 
they take on elegant but tiresome curves. A growing espalia 
support steals, of course, from the nourishment of the roses. 
Peeled or stripped oak has a good appearance. 



ROSE HEDGES AND ROSE ESPALIERS 205 

Then there are open fencings, which are somewhat Hke 
espaliers, either irregular or formal ; they are capable of 
extra embellishment, as when young fir or other poles are 
set against them, in front or behind, at long intervals, to 
support additional roses, climbers, or semi-climbers. This 
gives a handsome feature ; it can be made more elaborate 
still by giving the tall poles downward-slanting side pieces, 
of narrower wood, nailed to the top of the open fencing below. 
When these are outlined by rose garlands the screen gained 
will be tall, the floral display exquisite. 

Rose-covered railings need not be more than two feet high, 
or may be six feet, or eight. The taller the railing the wider 
apart should be the uprights, the broader the aperture. A 
stone railing is often one of the most suitable boundary markers 
for a stone terrace ; a rustic wood railing is often needed to 
fence off a pool, or edge some portion of a grass plot over 
which feet have an obnoxious custom of trampling when taking 
a short cut. 

A rustic criss-cross fence is not informal, because it has 
to be symmetrical, yet it looks in keeping with many a cottage 
or farmhouse garden, and is so easy to put up that the gardener 
who is no carpenter can scarcely fail with it. 

Old grey weather-beaten oak close fences show off all roses 
beautifully ; but golden varieties, and the flaming orange 
scarlets, are especially enhanced in charm by the sober ground- 
work for their brilliance. 



CHAPTER XXXIX 
MAKING ROSE GARDENS 

' Roses are gifts for a monarch, nay more, 
No monarch ever gave fairer ; 
Roses are gems for a princess, nay more, 
No princess ever wore rarer.' 

Old Ballad. 

FORMAL or not formal ? — What an all-important question, 
and what a supreme decision must be made at the 
very beginning. 

I suppose, in our heart of hearts, most of us love symmetry 
in our gardens ; the well-cultivated look praises us, whereas 
the best of cultivation given to a ' wild,' or ' natural,' type 
of garden is almost unrecognizable, and certain to be over- 
looked by the average visitor. Yes — our friends will vote 
us mighty clever for being able to measure a La France bloom 
of many inches from tip to tip and pronounce that it estab- 
lishes a record, but they will only admire the roses themselves — 
not our skill — if we show them a thicket of Rugosas, or a 
Yellow Rambler sprawling over yard upon yard of grass- 
coated bank. After all, though, would we not rather let the 
dear roses themselves have the credit ? 

Our destinies are not determined by our environments; 
not our soul-destinies, anyhow, let cynic-pessimists prate as 
they choose ; but our rose gardens must be determined by 
the circumstances of their case, if they are to be successful — 
by which I mean now, artistic. It is no use making an ideal 
rustic-cottage garden round a hideous little villa ; the best 
we can do with the over-ornate jerry-built homestead pleasure- 
grounds is to make them look gay and trim, and cover every 

206 



MAKING ROSE GARDENS 207 

inch of the screaming red brick, or staring stucco, with chmbers, 
mostly evergreen, as soon as we can. 

The best course to pursue with the villa ground is to make 
it very neat and gay, I repeat. 

If there is a dingy scarlet-and-mustard-yellow tessellated 
tile walk up to the front door, or at the back of the building, 
what use to imitate beside it the way wild roses fling themselves 
over hedgerows with their inimitable delicacy and grace ? 
The two things are so incongruous that they shout at one 
another, calling more attention to the modern vulgarity of 
the cheap brickwork. 

Trim beds of bright salmon, gold, apricot, and bronze roses, 
box-edged for the sake of the touch of deep green, or edged 
by unpretentious tiles, will at least harmonize with the colours 
of the pavement, and a few plants of blue violas, with some 
blue clematises up the walls, accompanied by slate-blue, 
ceanothus azureus, and a gleaming berried firethorn or two, 
will create a blend on which we shall be able to gaze gratefully. 
Pink and carmine roses must not be visible, only the shrimp 
of The Lyon, with yellows, scarlets, salmons, sulphurs, black- 
maroons, creams and whites. A number of dark evergreen 
trees and shrubs, clipped fancifully, or simply rounded off 
and some pillars and knolls of beautiful ivies will be other 
excellent companions for the roses. A grand rose garden is 
usually called a rosery, because it is but the portion of vast 
grounds that happens to be devoted to the rose. Formal 
terraced roseries will always have their votaries, and no 
wonder. The chief omissions in them are that stone vases 
are not rose-filled too, the soil is not carpeted with pegged- 
down roses, and serried ranks of slim pillars are not recognized 
as being more suitable than hedges, and fairer than stone 
balustrades, for marking their boundaries. I would have at 
least one stone vase, twelve feet or more high, and broad 
in proportion, holding dropping Wichuraianas, and a towering 
specimen rose, of nearly evergreen foliage, in the middle, as 
part of every formal rosery. 

A rosery where nearly all the roses are grown on raised banks, 



208 



ROSE GARDENING 



of informal shapes' -and turfed sides, has a simply exquisite 
effect when matured, and the turf itself just here and there 
may be planted with pegged-down Teas. 

A rosery that is really a rose 
orchard does not come to comple- 
tion for years, but is magnificent 
when it does. I like to have many 
of the trees enormous standards, 
none kept to a round regular ' head,' 
none trained to ' weep,' but all 
allowed to spray about with the 
branching elegance that every rose 
can exhibit if left to do so. The 
branches will have to be limited, 
the buds too, but the longer, and 
wilder, the former can be left, the 
better. 

When the decision as to formal 
or not formal design is in no way 
forced by circumstances, it is sensible 
for the gardener to reflect that the 
formal style demands far the most 
care and attention. Any kind of 
patterned garden is deplorable when 
it grows out of order. Better not 
aim at cultivating fifty roses in one 
bed, to match in height, etc., if you 
are not master of the art of pruning 
so as to persuade trees to all grow 
evenly and flower together. 

A mixed rosery is always safe to 
plant, where great bushes rise from 
congregations of dwarf trees, an 
Austrian Briar, or Hybrid Sweet Briar suddenly stretches 
arms across the flowery heads of little Polyanthas, as though 
in benediction, a bit of stripped oak espalier supports a 
brilliant Cheshunt Scarlet, in the midst of an entourage of 




A Paved Formal Rose 
Garden. 



MAKING ROSE GARDENS 209 

pale Teas ; and the Chinas, Mosses and Bourbons, in a group, 
try which can grow tallest. 

If there can be several roseries, or rose-gardens, there is 
opportunity to dedicate one to Dehcate Roses, one to New 
Roses, others individually to Old-time Roses, Darkest Roses, 
Scented Roses, Rose species. Single Roses, and so on. 

Colour blending in rose-garden making is not difficult, 
but the planter, to be at ease in his task, must have a con- 
siderable acquaintance among roses, or he will know he is in 
danger of blundering. Catalogue descriptions are admittedly 
misleading ; the National Rose Society has done its best 
to make the colour reports official, but best is not much, though 
far better than nothing ! If the gardener is zealous, he will 
improve his knowledge constantly by every means at his 
command, such as visiting shows, nurserymen's grounds, 
and other people's roses. 

In making a border in which every rose colour is to be 
represented, the eye should be feasted first on white, then 
led through blush and pale pink to deep rose, carmine, and 
claret. Beyond claret, deep cream will prepare the vision 
for hues from which the blue-pink and blue-crimson tones 
are absent ; lemon may come next, deep gold give place to 
orange, orange to cerise, cerise to flame colour, vermilion 
and scarlet. Beyond scarlet, more white can be followed by 
apricot, and apricot by tawny copper. 

If a darker rose is wanted to place by vermilion, or scarlet, 
a choice may be made between General Schabhkine, and 
the old Ben Cant, on account of the coppery tinge in their 
crimsons. 

Of course roses are often employed for furnishing, to give 
colour notes in a garden landscape ; but this is not exactly 
planting a rose-garden. Their wonderful tints make them, 
when massed as to varieties, more telling at a distance than 
are any shrubs except rhododendrons. They are best set 
so as to form pyramids, if to be striking from afar. To be 
viewed from the windows of a house, especially the upper 
windows, slightly sunk beds of dwarf roses are the most showy. 

o 



210 



ROSE GARDENING 



For a remarkable effect, scarlet roses should be planted 
down a long border in full sunshine, backed by a white painted 
fence or wall. Separate borders for the earliest, and the latest, 
blooming roses, are very interesting. 

It is usually a pity to mix varieties of white roses ; one 
is sure to kill the beauty of another, so many are the shades 
in white, when flowers moulded of many petals are concerned. 













A Novel Red and Pink Rosery, in Grass. 



A man, or woman, who sets out to make a rose-garden 
should put much heart and soul into the business ; it is not 
a selfish indulgence, not a false luxury ; it can be thrown 
open for crowds to witness, it will be a haven of rest and 
consolation for all who are privileged to stay long within it ; 
it will leave sweet soothing memories in the minds of those 
who have to depart from it, and its blossoms can go forth to 
sick chambers, hospitals, town tenements, bridals, churches, 
burials, and hallow many a feast and scene of revelry or 
rejoicing. 



CHAPTER XL 
SOME ROSE PEDIGREES 

' The rainbow comes and goes ; 
And lovely is the rose.' 

Wordsworth. 

THE following account of some roses' pedigrees may be 
of interest to rose-lovers, and most of all to those who 
are setting about breeding roses, so have to decide on parents 
for the new races they hope to raise. 

While claiming that the information given here has been 
obtained carefully, from the best sources, I do not pledge 
my faith to the accuracy of every item ; some errors may 
have been given to the world for truth, some persons may 
have talked and written on such slender authority that they 
had no real authority for the statements that they guaranteed 
as correct. However, the great majority of these genealogical 
facts can be proved beyond any doubt. 

We all have our pet roses ; it will please some of us especially 
to learn what sons or daughters those varieties have be- 
queathed to us ; we shall order them at once, plant them near 
their mothers, or fathers, and delight in tracing resemblances 
as soon as all are blossoming together. 

SoLEiL D'Angers. a sport from Letty Coles. A sport from 

Soleil d'Or. Madame Willermoz. 

Caroline Testout. Seedling Cissie Easlea. A cross between 

from Madame de Tortres, crossed Madame Melanie Soupert and 

with Lady Mary Fitzwilliam. Rayon d'Or. 

Admiral Dewey. A sport from Souvenir de S. A. Prince. A 

Caroline Testout. sport from Souvenir d'un Ami. 

Kaiserin Augusta Victoria. Peace. A sport from G. Nabon- 

A cross between Coquette de nand. 

Lyon and Lady Mary Fitz- Nova Zembla. A sport from 

William. Conrad F. Meyer. 

211 



312 



ROSE GARDENING 



Blakc Double de Coubert. 

A seedling from the single Rugosa 

Alba. 
Juliet. A cross between Soleil 

d'Or and Captaiit Hayward. 
Soleil d'Or. A cross between 

Antoine Diicher and Persian 

Yellow. 
Lady Roberts. A sport from 

Anna Olivier. 
Hugh Dickson. A cross between 

Griiss an Teplitz and Lord Bacon. 
Gloire de CnfeDANE GUINOIS- 

seau. Seedling from Gloire de 

Ducher. 
Mrs. Alfred Westmacott. 

Seedling from G. Nabonnand. 
Chin Chin. Seedling from Ma- 
dame Eugenie Resal. 
Solfaterre. Seedling from La- 
marque. 
Cloth of Gold. Seedling from 

Lamarque. 
Isabella Sprunt. Seedling from 

Cloth of Gold. 
Isabella Gray. Seedling from 

Cloth of Gold. 
The Lyon Rose. A cross between 

Madame Melanie Soupert and 

an unnamed seedling of Soleil 

d'Or. 
Lady Hillingdon. Generally 

said to be a cross between Madame 

Hoste and Papa Gontier. 
Pharisaer. a chance seedling 

from Mrs. W. J. Grant. 
Hon. Edith Gifford. A cross 

between Perle des Jardins and 

Madame Falcot. 
Pride of Reigate. A sport from 

Countess of Oxford. 
White Killarney, A sport from 

Killarney. 
Merrie England. A seedling 
, from Heinrich Schulthes. 



Commander Jules Gravereaux. 

A seedling from Fran Karl 

Druschhi. 
Emperor de Maroc. A seedling 

from Geant des Batailles. 
Bridesmaid. A sport from 

Catherine Mermet. 
Muriel Grahame. A sport from 

Catherine Mermet. 
Lady Faire. A sport from Mrs. 

W. J. Grant. 
Joseph Lowe. A sport from 

Mrs. W. J. Grant. 
Veilchenblau. a sport from 

Crimson Rambler. 
Psyche. A cross between Golden 

Fairy and Crimson Rambler. 
May Marriot. A sport from 

Madame E. Herriot. 
Killarney Brilliant. A sport 

from Killarney. 
Irish Afterglow. A sport from 

Irish Fireflame. 
Golden Meyer. A sport from 

Edu Meyer. 
Crimson Chatenay. Seedling 

from Madame Abel Chatenay. 
C A N d E u R Lyonnaise. One 

parent is Frau Karl Druschki. 
George Arends. One parent is 

Frau Karl Druschki. 
The Bride. A sport from 

Catherine Mermet. 
White Maman Cochet. De- 
scended from Maman Cochet. 
Dorothy Denison (or Christian 

Curie). A sport from Dorothy 

Perkins. 
Flower of Fairfield. A sport 

from Crimson Rambler. 
Philadelphia Rambler. De- 
scended from Crimson Rambler. 
White Dorothy. A sport from 

Dorothy Perkins. 



SOME ROSE PEDIGREES 



213 



Kathleen Harrop. Bourbon. 
Sport from Zephyr ine Drouhin. 

Reine Marie Henriette. De- 
scended from Gloire de Dijon. 

Karl Druschki. A cross be- 
tween a climbing Tea and 
Merveille de Lyon. 

Madame Abel Chatenay. One 
parent is Dr. Grill. 

Richmond. A cross between 
General Jacqueminot and Lady 
Battersea, or a sport from 
Liberty. 

Marechal Niel. a cross between 
Isabella Gray and Solfaterre. 

James Fergusson. A sport from 
Caroline Testout. 

Natalie Bottner. Descended 
from Frau Karl Druschki. 



Golden Ophelia. Seedling from 

Ophelia. 
Effective. Crimson. Seedling 

from General McA rthur. 
President Parmentier. A 

cross between Colonel Leclerc 

and Le Progres. 
Mermaid. A cross between Rosa 

bracteata and a Tea. 
Cornelia. Hybrid Tea (1920). 

Ophelia — Mrs. Aaron Ward. 
Primrose Pirrie (1920). Sport 

from Lady Pirrie. 
Madame Leon Pain. Pollen 

parent is Souvenir de Catherine 

Guillot. 
Mademoiselle Charlotte Che- 
valier. Hybrid Tea. Sport 

from Arthur R. Goodwin. 



CHAPTER XLI 
TOWN AND SEASIDE ROSES 

'Where'er a perfect rose unfurls its grace. 
Is to the poet's soul a holy place.' 

THERE are certain rose varieties that are always reckoned 
good for town culture, but experience teaches one that 
many others of equal merit are overlooked. Hugh Dickson 
and George Dickson, for instance — Noella Nabonnand, all 
the children of Frau Karl Druschki, with whose names and 
descriptions the reader of this book will be familiar, Florence 
Haswell Veitch, scarlet, shaded with black, Cupid, a single 
rose of a pretty flesh colour, Amateur Teyssier, yellow, Ches- 
hunt Hybrid, cherry-carmine, William Cooper, lake-crimson, 
Suzanne Marie Rodocanachi, silvery rose, Mrs. Crocker, pink, 
Annie Crawford, silvery pink, very fragrant, and for Teas, 
Sulphurea, sulphur yellow, and Madame Jules Gravereaux. 

I believe all the offspring of Caroline Testout are safe to 
plant, and so are La France, La France of '89, and the deep 
pink Duchess of Albany, The Pernetiana Roses are said 
to be reliable in all but the smokiest localities. They succeed 
admirably at the seaside, as do all the rose varieties mentioned 
as flourishing in towns. 

Those generally recommended for town, or sea, are Ulrich 
Brunner, Viscountess Folkestone, Senateur- Vaisse, Mrs. John 
Laing, Marie Baumann, Madame Gabrielle Luizet, Johanna 
Sebous, La Tosca, Gustave Grunerwald, Caroline Testout, 
Baroness Rothschild, Gloire de Dijon, Madame Pierre Cochet, 
Victor Verdier, Dupuy J amain, cherry, Duke of Fife and 
Duke of Teck, both bright crimson. 

Among new roses whose merits in this respect are not tested, 

214 



TOWN AND SEASIDE ROSES 215 

I expect the following would do well, on account of certain 
special qualities mentioned : — 

Raymond. Hybrid Tea. Spread- The Queen Alexandra. Hy- 
ing and branching habit. A brid Tea. Vermilion and gold, 

blend of peach salmon and with mildew-proof foliage, 

orange carmine. Edith Cavell. Hybrid Tea. 

Mrs. C. V. Haworth. Hybrid Lemon-tinged white. Strong 

Tea. Apricot buff flamed with stemmed, erect. 

cerise rose. Stiff Magnolia-like Emily Gray. W ichur aiana. 

petals. Deep yellow, exceptionally glossy 

Lilian Moore. Hybrid Tea. foliage. 

Almost a weather despising rose, Pax Labor. Hybrid Tea. Very 

of somewhat camellia shape, vigorous and floriferous. Pale 

colour a tawny yellow. yellow, edged carmine. 

The Japanese Roses are splendid for all towns ; they will 
live in a soot-laden atmosphere, where their blooms and 
leaves have to be washed before they are fit to gather. Many 
Hybrid Briars will endure town life, but not the chemical- 
laden air of manufacturing places. Other roses, a mixed 
selection, that occur to memory as suitable for the bad places, 
are Standwell Perpetual, Ards Rover, Scotch White, Old Pink 
China, and the Red and the White Provence. 

Town roses thrive much better if syringed almost nightly 
all summer, and even in spring when they are bud-making ; 
and they soon show appreciation of lime scatterings above 
their soil, followed by a gentle hoeing. The ground of London 
gardens is usually more or less sour, and the loosening of it 
on the surface enables noxious vapours to escape, to the great 
relief of all living plants or trees. Lime sweetens and purifies. 
Road grit forked in lightly will render the soil less claggy. 
Draughts cause the failure of more roses than is generally 
recognized ; there are so often cold currents blowing down 
alleys by the sides of houses, or between clumps of shrubs, 
I believe if half the usual number of evergreens were eliminated 
from a town garden the roses and herbaceous plants would 
gain new leases of life. Great solid masses of evergreen 
leaves are useful as screens, of course, yet they shut away 



2i6 ROSE GARDENING 

sun-warmth even where they do not actually impede the 
sun's rays ; they throw off vapours, which are conveyed to the 
flowers near, and their rotting, and rotten, foliage damages 
the soil. 

The ordinary wooden trellises, though not aesthetic, are 
quite unobjectionable in obviously artificial gardens, and 
for screening off parts, and for lessening draughts without 
making a garden stuffy, are of real worth. 

Seaside roses have to contend with great gales, but the 
warmth of the sunny aspects will, of course, be much greater 
than the warmth of similar aspects in inland towns. On 
south walls most of the less robust roses are safe, but east 
walls are perilous, especially on the East Coast. On the 
South Coast a south wall is such a baked place that the most 
delicate roses do best on it, hardier ones not being able to 
bear the temperature. Seaside roses, except where south- 
west rains are frequent, require considerable waterings, whereas 
London and large inland town roses often receive too much 
wet, and should be mulched round with fresh dry loam, and 
dry strawy horse manure, to keep the water from forming 
pools above the roots. Heaping up the ground a little against 
the stems, though a fatal practice in many other kinds of 
gardens, does good in such cases as these. A sparing amount 
of sharp cinders may be dug into the soil of rose beds and 
borders that receive too much wet, or are damp through 
airlessness of the locality. Dwarf tea roses are hardy by the 
sea, will stand a lot of gale-buffeting, but I have never known 
them do well long in very enclosed London gardens. 

Growing dwarf perennials over rose beds is of benefit in the 
coast gardens, but detrimental in the other town ones. 

A fine white flowering climber that is splendid by the sea 
is Madame Alfred Carriere. Griiss an Teplitz will run up a 
house front in no time, and makes a striking companion 
for the first-named rose. 

Where gales are extra troublesome pegged-down Teas 
should be tried, and a few hedges, or clumps, of the Japanese 
Briar roses are excellent to shelter them. 



CHAPTER XLII 
ROSE ARRANGING INDOORS 

' A Garden rose is for the birds and bees, 
My rose within my window dwells.' 

POT roses will live and bloom well inside windows of sunny 
rooms where the ventilation can be ample, without 
draughts. As a rule people do not spend a sufficiently open-air 
life indoors for roses to dwell with them. But, if there is a 
sunny staircase window, especially a bay, that can be opened 
day and night except in the worst weathers and temperatures, 
opened down to just above the tops of the trees, so that all 
the rose growth is beneath the draught, then a charming 
show is sure. 

I am telling how roses can be kept for months together 
indoors, and yet thrive ; of course we may have beautiful 
greenhouse effects in any window for a week or so, by growing 
enough pot roses to change them frequently, sending the one 
batch back to the greenhouse, or frames, as soon as they show 
signs of exhaustion, or are out of bloom. In the same way, 
groups of pot roses can occupy landing corners, hall tables, 
marble shelves at the base of mirrors, the fireplaces in summer, 
tables in the drawing-room, angles between bookcases of the 
library. Much of the attractiveness of Flower Shows comes 
from the floral groups sent by skilled florists ; those are the 
models by which the home gardener, private or professional, 
should be guided. Too close massing is an error ; a few 
roses placed among foliage plants show to finer advantage 
than if the same varieties were largely represented. Nor is 
it necessary to cultivate a costly range of foliage subjects 

217 



2i8 ROSE GARDENING 

of tender nature ; the mossy saxifrages are capital in pots 
for congregating round the larger pots of roses, and hiding 
them. Those cushions of vivid deep emerald green will show 
off the darker hues of the rose leaves, and the ruby young 
shoots too, and will enhance vivid reds, pinks, and golds. 
Other hardy plants to grow for the same usefulness are Funkias, 
Kenilworth Ivy, the familiar saxifrage called Mother of 
Thousands, Variegated Arabis, the annual Summer Cypress, 
or Kochia, Homely Musk, and Sweet Woodruff. Several 
kinds of Beet will be serviceable in summer, when the bedding 
plants such as Scented-leaved Geraniums, Perilla Nankin- 
ensis. Cockscombs, Golden Feather, The Ice Plant, Echeverias, 
and ornamental Grasses, can be included. 

Shrubs are excellent stand-bys, at all seasons : the miniature 
hardy Firs, Hollies, Euonymuses, Privets, and Boxes, and 
the delicate Myrtle, Lemon Verbena, French Lavender, etc. 

Of flowering plants that may be mingled with roses there 
are hosts, of course, from Hydrangeas down to trailing Lobelia. 

One novel fashion of showing off pot roses for special occa- 
sions is to have a deep window-box, of great length, to stand 
upon the drawing-room mantelpiece, in place of the usual orna- 
ments, which will be easily located near. If the box has a 
front covered by Virgin cork, and trailing plants, greenhouse 
or hardy, occupy the front line inside ; if the soil of the roses 
is all covered by moss, and laid-on streamers of Virginian 
Creeper, and Flowerless Clematises, with Variegated Hop 
foliage, giant Fern fronds, dainty Ivies, the trees themselves 
will rise from a bank of greenery. 

There is no reason why the rose table should not be as 
usual in a drawing-room as the silver table, why jardinieres 
should not hold some dozens of blossoming Teas, why the 
hall doorways should not be banked up at their sides with 
masses of gay dwarf Polyanthas. It is best to obtain the 
required height in plant groups by inverting pots, and poising 
other pots on those ; or green-painted boxes are handy if 
kept dry so that they do not begin to rot, and smell. Dull 
green Art muslin is useful to wind in and out among pots 



ROSE ARRANGING INDOORS 219 

to hide the earthenware behind fern and other fronds and 
leafage, but should be hidden itself as much as possible. Some- 
times a plant group that is bare, and betrays that it is made 
of pots, which a fine group should never do, can be cured in 
a few minutes by the introduction, between or before the 
plants, of some vases of flowers or foliage. Gypsophila, with 
field grasses, freshly gathered Statices, feathery plumes of 
Celosias, Maidenhair and other greenhouse ferns, wreaths 
shorn from Dog-roses of the hedges, wild Bryony, boughs 
of Southernwood, sprays of Asparagus, are but some of the 
suitable additions. 

Pots of Rambler Roses, trained pillar style, are capable of 
giving a stately charm to a hall. Pots of trailing Wichuraianas 
may be stood up the staircase, and the branches allowed to 
hang down between the banisters, to be admired from below. 

Roses succeed in glass porches, or even in brick porches 
if the doors are generally open, or there are side windows. 

When we think of the myriad fashions in which the Queen 
of Flowers can be arranged in water, when gathered, we must 
acknowledge that it is our own faults entirely if our homes 
are not as rose-adorned as our gardens. 

Heavy-headed roses look best in massive bowls, held in 
place by some of the innumerable kinds of wire supports, 
and surrounded with masses of their leaves. I hope all rose 
lovers will take care to give each rose variety its own proper 
foliage ; Marechal Niel loses half its identity for us if sur- 
rounded by glossy branches from a Yellow Rambler ; The 
Duke of Edinburgh looks rather absurd among small-leaved 
sprays of Tea-rose foliage ; a big rose, such as La Tosca, almost 
as bold as a pseony, must not rise from festoons of Wichu- 
raianas. 

Persons who find a difficulty in arranging roses well in 
bowls should practise the art, and begin by always setting 
the foliage in first. A pyramid of leafy boughs may be formed ; 
then some overhanging leaves, with some red-tinted shoots 
and some bud sprays, not yet opening, if these can be afforded ; 
finally the rose blooms should be added, one by one. It would 



220 ROSE GARDENING 

be folly to say they should not touch one another, since an 
occasional group of three, or the association of a couple, a 
darker peeping from behind a lighter, gives a lovely focus for the 
vision. Really a rose bowl should be built up as an artist 
would compose a picture, with due care for the arrangement of 
light and shade, and avoidance of all heaviness or spottiness. 

Long-stemmed roses, of elegant shape, never look better 
than when set singly in tall slender specimen glasses — which 
are often costly bits of glass now, of course, though the name 
was invented to signify vases of no consequence, intended 
just to show off the flower. 

Gypsophila, Statices, London Pride, and the little silver- 
leaved, white forget-me-not annual, Venus's Navelwort, are 
pretty with roses, but I believe there are few rose enthusiasts 
who would not rather have roses alone than mingled in vases 
with flowers of greater consequence than those just mentioned, 
which serve the purpose of grasses. 

Sweet Peas and Roses mean ruined sweet peas and roses 
deprived of their majesty, or grace, according to whether 
they are the stout-stemmed monster blooms, or the long- 
budded slender Hybrid Teas, the elegant Pernetianas, or the 
wreathing Ramblers. 

A table decoration for a feast that I once saw consisted 
of a centre group of Madonna Lilies, arranged with their 
leafed stems upright, as though growing ; and crimson and 
scarlet roses filled hidden bowls all around them, set in tiers, 
so that the lilies seemed to be coming from among rose-formed 
banks. This was most beautiful, because the roses had their 
full complement of buds, and leaves, too, were not wedged 
together to give a mere colour splash. 

One way to furnish a fireplace easily and well is to cultivate 
some trailing Ivies in pots, use these to form an ivy bank, 
and set hidden vases in the greenery, so filled with branches 
of roses that they spray about as in Nature. 

The colour rules that guide the planter of rose-beds can 
be consulted by the arranger of roses. Suffice it to remind 
readers that rose pinks and carmine crimsons must be kept 



ROSE ARRANGING INDOORS 221 

out of sight of salmon pinks and scarlets. Yellows and apricots 
spoil each other, of course, as do buff and strong orange. 

White roses are singularly well suited by pale green glass 
receptacles, and trails of deep green smilax. An arrange- 
ment of white roses, Gypsophila, and silver foliage, such as 
that of Cineraria maritima, will offer a novelty ; the rose's 
dark leaves will show up finely. Apricot and copper roses 
are charming always in silver bowls and flagons. Old pink 
Cabbage Roses may well be arranged in countryfied-looking 
baskets, or blue and white china bowls, or ginger jars. 

Gold plate, or copper, makes a glowing combination with 
dark crimson roses ; scarlet or flame-salmon roses are always 
eye-satisfying in silver, pewter, or clear white glass. 

Is it a barbarism to lay roses on the cloth ? Well, that 
is a matter for private judgment. I do not like the custom, 
nor can I take to the newer one of decapitating roses and 
floating their poor heads in dishes of water. If tracery there 
must be on the tablecloth, foHage trails should, I think, supply 
it, and colour be given by a rose bloom here and there, with 
just one or two leaves, in bowls so small that they can be 
buried in the foliage wreathings. Or these tiny hidden vases 
may contain only opening buds. With many of our roses the 
buds are remarkably lovely, slashed or flushed with brilliant 
hues. 

Some roses, those of thick woody stems, last better in water if 
their stalks are partly peeled in the same way as we do for lilac. 

The advent of wire flower supports, mostly Japanese models, 
has made the use of wet silver sand almost obsolete ; it had 
its merits, though, and any flower arranger who regrets it 
should try using the crushed sea-shell sold for growing bulbs 
in, as this is less heavy and, cleaner, it does not stain china. 

It is not often that long-stemmed roses will last more than 
a day fresh in water, but if the flowers have their stems cut 
much shorter as they begin to droop, they will revive again 
for use in small vases. A lump of charcoal helps to keep 
water sweet, and receptacles clean. 



GENERAL INDEX 



For " Index of Rose Names," see p. 225. 



Acacias, 81 

Andromedas, 81 

Annuals, 78 

Ants, 173 

Aphis, 172, 173, 174 

Arabis, 78 

Arranging roses in bowls, 219 

Ashes, 89 

Azaleas, 81 

B 

Bark wounds, 1 75 

Berberises, 81 

Biennials, 78 

Bhght, 172 

Blue Flax, 78 

Bone meal, 144 

Box edging, 105 

Brooms, 81 

Brown fungus, 172 

Buddleias, 81 

Buds, Dropping, iii 

Buds, Hard, 139 

Buds, Malformed, 138, 139 

Buds with black stems, 139 



Canary Creeper, 79 
Canker, 171 
Caterpillars, 176 
Charcoal, 221 
Chrysanthemums, 80 
Clay soil, 122 
Clay's Fertihzer, 144 
Cobaea scandens, 79 
Colchicums, 80 



Convolvulus, 79 
Cotoneasters, 81 
Crocuses, 80 



DahUas, 80 

Daisies, 78 

Day for planting, 128 

Delphiniums, 80 

Deutzia, 81 

Dipping rose trees, 176 

Disease, To prevent, 143 

Dog roses, 219 

Draughts, 215 



Earwigs, 139, 175 
Escallonias, 81 



Fences, 91 

Fireplace furnishing, 220 

Forcing early roses, 1 79 

Forsythias, 81 

Frost, Protection from, 168 

Fumigating, 180 

Fungoid diseases, 170 



Gas lime, 123 

Gorses, 81 

Green-fly, 112, 113, 139, 172, 173, 174, 

176, 180 
Guana, 143 
Gypsophila elegans, 78 



222 



INDEX 



223 



H 

Hoeing, 125 
Honeysuckle, 79 
Hop manure, 123, 140 
House-wall angle, 92 
Hybrid Sweet Briar, 39, 40 
Hydrangeas, 81 



N 

Nasturtiums, 78 
Neglected ground, 122 
Nemesia strumosa Suttoni, 7? 
New ground, 122 
New trees, 127 



Iceland Poppies, 78 
Insects, 112 
Irises, 80 

K 

Kitchen gardens, 124 



Labels, 129 

Laburnums, 81 

Leaf spot, 171 

Lilacs, 81 

Liliums, 80 

Lime-water, 141, 143 

Linaria, 78 

Liquid manures, 141, 143 

Lobelia, 78 

IVI 

Maggots, 139, 175, 176 

Magnolia, 73 

Manure, After-pruning, 142 

Manure for backward roses, 142 

Manure, Cow, 143 

Manure, Horse, 143 

Manure, Pig, 143 

Manure, Quick-acting, 144 

Manures, 122, 123, 124 

Manuring, 125 

Mantelpiece decoration, 218 

Meadow-saffrons, 80 

Mendel's law, 188 

Michaelmas Daisies, 80 

Mildew, 170, 171, 174, 175 

Mock Oranges, 81 

Moss roses, 192 

Mulching, 124, 168 

Multiple Fertilizer, 140, 143 

Mustard-water, 171 



Pseonies, 80 
Perennials, 78 
Peruvian Guano, 142 
Porches, Roses in, 219 
Prunus Pissardi, 62 



Quaking Grass, 78 
Quassia solution, 1 76 



Red Flax, 78 
Red Spider, 174 
Rhododendrons, 81 
Road sweepings, 122 
Rock-cress, 78 
Roots, Dry, 126 
Rose-leaf-Cutter Bee, 176 
Rose scale, 171 

S 

Salpiglossis, 78 

Scillas, 80 

Scotch Briar, 105 

Screens for protection, 167, 168 

Seed, Raising roses from, 154 

Seedhngs, 155 

Seedhng buds, 155 

Shading, 68, 69, 78 

Shrubs, 218 

Snow, 128 

Snowberry trees, 81 

Snowdrops, 80 

Soil, Chalky, 124, 144, 145 

Soil, Damp, 86 

Soil, Light, 124, 143 

Soil, Poor, 124 

Soil, Preparation of, 122 

Soil, Sour, 123 



224 



INDEX 



Soot, 123, 141, 144 
Sour ground, 123 
Spiraeas, 81 
Stakes, 129, 163 
Standen's Manure, 143 
Stimulant, A good, 142 
Syringing, 165, 171-6 



Table decoration, 220 
Temperature, 180 
Tiger Lily, 80 
Tobacco water, 172 
Tonk's Manure, 140, 141 
Transplanting, no 
Trenching, 122 
Turk's Cap Lily, 80 



Vegetable ashes, 123 
Venus's Navelwort, 78 
Veronicas, 81 
Violas, 78, 80 
Virginian Stock, 78 
Viscarias, 78 

W 

Walls, 91 

Weeping standards, 89 
Weeping willows, 89 
Weigelas, 81 
Woodlice, 172 
Worms, III, 171 



Yellow alyssum, 78 



